Different times: Hong Kong finance chief Paul Chan hints decade-old property curbs have had their day as home prices slide

Paul Chan says the property market situation is different from that when the government introduced the management measures in 2010

Chan returned home after touring Europe at the head of a 130-strong delegation in effort to tout Hong Kong as top business destination

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Lived-in home prices fell 1.4 per cent month on month in August. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 6:26pm, 27 Sep 2023Updated: 11:35pm, 27 Sep 2023

The government gave its strongest hint yet that it could soon ease Hong Kong’s property cooling measures with Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po saying on Wednesday the conditions that prompted authorities to impose such moves more than a decade ago no longer prevailed.

Meeting the press after a 10-day trade trip to Europe, Chan was asked whether authorities would relax cooling measures for the property market amid falling house prices.

“We see that the current property market situation is different from that when we introduced the management measures,” he said, referring to curbs launched by the government from 2010.

“After all, different management measures have their goals and purposes in different scenarios. We will adopt a pragmatic attitude and continue our reviews.”

In July, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation relaxed loan rules covering some homes to make them more accessible for first-time buyers and easier for owners to trade.

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