https://www.scmp.com/rss/324064/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com A public poll on the housing outlook conducted by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at Chinese University of Hong Kong last December confirms that most people don’t support the use of interventionist measures as a solution to tamp down surging home prices. Views are now equally split among the positive (rising), negative (falling) and neutral (stable). Actually, sentiment changed when the double stamp duty was raised to a flat rate of 15 per cent in November 2016 as some who used to be... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2132727/tightened-mortgage-rules-may-have-done-more-harm-good-cooling?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2132727/tightened-mortgage-rules-may-have-done-more-harm-good-cooling?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Feb 2018 01:15:30 +0000 In her maiden policy address, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor outlined a push for home ownership as the answer to the prolonged housing problems in Hong Kong. Through various schemes, such as the “Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme”, the better-off public housing tenants and middle-income families will get help to buy their own flats. A Starter Homes scheme to help young families will also be launched. Apparently, the government is trying to replicate Singapore’s public... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2121788/why-singapores-housing-model-wont-work-home-ownership-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2121788/why-singapores-housing-model-wont-work-home-ownership-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Nov 2017 10:15:15 +0000 Hong Kong’s Exchange Fund surprisingly issued additional debt papers of HK$40 billion (US$5 billion) in August, supposedly to absorb excess liquidity in the banking system. However, the Hong Kong dollar had been trading on the weak side of the peg, i.e. over 7.8 per US dollar, for several months. People are wondering whether the move was in defence of the peg, or with other policy implications. Monetary statistics show that cause for concern is not unfounded. By definition, M3 of the Hong Kong... https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/2110313/hong-kongs-exchange-fund-has-case-answer-its-defence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/2110313/hong-kongs-exchange-fund-has-case-answer-its-defence?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Sep 2017 05:48:29 +0000 When the Innovation and Technology Bureau was set up in late 2015, aspirations were high and promises made. However, Hong Kong has fallen three places, to 16th, in this year’s Global Innovation Index. Why have all the government efforts in the past 20 years or so proved ineffective? The Global Innovation Index 2017 report, covering 127 economies, offers much insight. The main index is comprised of the input and output sub-indexes. It has five areas of innovation “input”: institutions, human... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2107724/why-shadowing-singapore-or-china-wont-help-hong-kong-climb?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2107724/why-shadowing-singapore-or-china-wont-help-hong-kong-climb?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Aug 2017 05:21:25 +0000 The report “The World in 2050”, published earlier this year by PricewaterhouseCoopers, predicts that China and the emerging economies will overtake the US and developed economies as the global growth engine. Hong Kong will have entered its second 50 years of post-reunification, and this shift will call for an innovative role, given that its traditional role as a “connector” between the East and the West is fading. The report forecasts that the emerging and developed economies together would... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2105937/financier-greater-china-hong-kong-has-unbeatable-edge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2105937/financier-greater-china-hong-kong-has-unbeatable-edge?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Aug 2017 08:53:53 +0000 Last November, the Hong Kong government again raised the stamp duty for buying residential property, yet housing prices also reached a new high. Apparently, these additional “spicy” measures could not arrest the price hike. For the past four years, the government has endeavoured to stabilise the housing market, but in vain. So, why don’t these demand-side measures work? When the global financial tsunami hit in September 2008, Hong Kong’s housing market was already grossly imbalanced, with a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2072969/why-hong-kong-failing-rein-housing-prices?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2072969/why-hong-kong-failing-rein-housing-prices?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Feb 2017 09:09:55 +0000