INTRODUCTION TO BLOG
Now that I am back in Hong Kong, I decided to pay more attention to the upcoming Chief Executive election here on March 26. The Chief Executive is like a governor in a U.S. state. There are four candidates with a long shot chance of a fifth propelled by the public if one percent of registered voters sign his online petition urging him to join the race.
One of the biggest frustrations of Hongkongers is the high cost and inaccessibility to housing. I wrote a column on the subject of housing and why the candidates should spell out their housing policies and submitted it to the China Daily that has published several of my columns on Hong Kong political issues. It was rejected on the ground that the editors “Don’t need bitching and cursing but commentaries guided by reason.”
I believe it was rejected because it was not supportive of Beijing’s preferred candidate and questioned her housing promises.
So I decided to publish it as a blog so that my readers can let me know what you think because affordable and accessible housing is not only a Hong Kong issue – but a global issue – in America as well. So here goes. Let me know what you think. Am I being bitchy or is my request reasonable and applicable to all candidates seeking high office?
Back to Unsolicited Advice to President Trump next week.
TOP GOAL OF NEXT HK CE: HOUSING
Affordable housing must be the top priority for the new Hong Kong Chief Executive as it is paramount to keeping Hong Kong a sustainable city.
With Carrie Lam, the presumptive front runner campaign team loaded with property developers, her claim that housing is a top priority rings hollow without a detailed housing policy spelled out for all Hongkongers to see. The same holds true for the other contenders for Chief Executive. Since they all agree that housing is a top priority, why not spell out their plans now? Enough of the headline generating platitudes and sound bites.
CE candidate Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee summed up what plagues Hong Kong’s expensive housing and government’s failure to find a solution. “Land policy reforms have been discussed for years. I don’t think a civil servant or bureaucrat-turned leader will dare do it,” she said.
Honest and a real concern if Hong Kong is to remain a sustainable city.
The Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre’s first well-being index published late last year showed Hongkongers quality of life was almost stagnant between 2000 and 2015, rising by 0.4 per cent despite GDP per capita jumping by almost 60 per cent. Housing was one of the two factors affecting people’s quality of life.
Hongkongers biggest worry is housing costs as prices continue to climb despite the government’s cooling measures according to the Chinese Consumer Confidence Index survey results released last month. The results showed their outlook of housing dropped for the first quarter of 2017 to a one-year low at 45.1 points, down 20.9 percent compared to the last quarter.
Electing a new Chief Executive in and of itself will not change the publics’ negative perception, concerns and dissatisfaction of the high cost of housing.
Since 1997, the three Chief Executives have failed in their duties to the people of Hong Kong by prioritizing the pursuit of happiness of property developers. As a result, Hong Kong is paying a heavy price for the failure of its leadership and is losing its competitive edge in Greater China.
One of the main reasons smart talented people, locals and expats, are leaving Hong Kong is the high cost of housing.
The next CE must stop colluding with developers to create a high-property-price environment to sustain tax revenues. She or he must lead the government to take a more aggressive role in controlling both the public and private property markets to enable Hongkongers to have an affordable roof over their heads. It doesn’t take much, just the government’s political will to withstand the political pressure from self-serving property developers.
Talk of localism and independence has been inspired in large part by the failure of successive chief executives to meet Hongkongers home ownership aspirations. The quickest and fastest way to end talk of independence is to provide affordable roofs over the heads of its people.
Chief Executives cannot just please Hong Kong real estate developers. They must first and foremost please the permanent residents of Hong Kong.
Housing is a top priority if Hong Kong is to maintain its status as a top financial center, play a major role in the Belt and Road Initiative and maintain a per-capita GDP of US$42,407. With excess reserves of more than HK$1.5 trillion it is beyond belief that the government is not putting a significant portion of these reserves into housing for first time property buyers, young couples trying to build a future and seniors who have made Hong Kong what it is today. If Singapore can do it why can’t Hong Kong?
The answer is simple. The Hong Kong government is controlled by a cartel of tycoon-developers and in the words of fellow columnist Peter Guy, “their poor skills cultivated by our town’s intellectual inbred, parochial and village-like business community.”
The result, a speculative real estate market that has more than 190,000 homes known and referred to locally as “safety deposit boxes” sold to speculators and sitting empty according to government data. Why doesn’t the government impose a tax on empty flats to stop the practice or even make them available to its citizens at a reasonable-affordable rental price?
The high prices mainland developers bid for sites are a welcome competition to break the housing monopoly of local developers – but not enough.
Why not make every developer in Hong Kong allocate up to 25 per cent of new housing stock to first time Hong Kong buyers and senior citizens. After all, that is what progressive governments do by giving developers tax credits and other benefits.
It is imperative that the next CE make Hong Kong a sustainable city by making housing affordable to all its citizens – young and old.