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Letters | Hong Kong property tycoons, who are closing ranks against protesters, are complicit in the current crisis
- A previous generation of students protested against ‘tycoon hegemony’. However, successive Hong Kong governments have maintained the status quo, allowing property developers to grow richer and housing to become more expensive
I refer to “Developers blame violent protests for economic slump” (August 14) which, together with Peter Woo’s invocation in “Tycoon calls on Hongkongers to end the violence” (August 13) and “Swire pressed into condemning city’s violent behaviour” (August 14), clearly shows a “united front” is now in force. The tycoons know which side of their bread is buttered.
However, they should remember that about 10 years ago, students known as the post-1980s generation were protesting against what they termed “property hegemony”. These youthful protesters were also driven to radical extremes by frustration over diminishing opportunities for upward mobility.
Then Chinese premier Wen Jiabao urged chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen to look into “deep-rooted problems” related to land policy and housing. However, our officials ignored that good advice, maintaining the status quo for the tycoons who have grown even richer but lost the respect of the general population by unscrupulously minimising flat sizes while ramping up prices.
Now, young protesters are again attempting to wake the establishment up to the rising levels of political and socioeconomic frustration among Hongkongers. Henderson Land Development, Sun Hung Kai and New World Development have been sitting on huge swathes of farmland waiting for the government to place roads and utilities so they can maximise profits on these low-carrying-cost land investments. These property developers are complicit in creating the housing crisis which has destabilised our society.
I agree with David Dodwell’s recommendation in “Hear the housing alarm” (August 10) that these property developers should be instructed to use their land banks or lose them. Some of this unused land should be compulsory bought by the Housing Authority at farmland prices for public housing.
Christian Rogers, Wan Chai
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