Home sweet home? More like investment sweet investment in Hong Kong
letters@scmp.com or filling in
this Google form . Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification
How do we put into perspective Hong Kong's property market?
On the one hand, we have parties such as
Morgan Stanley projecting that 'the decline in prices is behind us' and talking as if the decline has been an issue.
On the other hand, we still have one of the most expensive property markets in the world where 46 per cent of households live in government-owned or -subsidised housing. Think about this for a moment: in a city with the third highest number of dollar billionaires in the world, nearly half of households need government support for one of life's most basic essentials, shelter. Given this situation, why would we want housing costs to increase?
Yet the administration's measures to boost the property sector are obviously going to make housing even less affordable while propping up the wealthy.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
2 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Will CK Hutchison's plan to tap mainland Chinese firm for Panama ports deal pay off?
Hong Kong's CK Hutchison Holdings may win Beijing's support through its plan to bring in a mainland Chinese company as a strategic investor in the controversial sale of its global port stakes, but the change in tack has also fuelled uncertainty, experts have said. Analysts said that the planned US$23 billion deal to sell CK Hutchison's 43 overseas ports, including two at the Panama Canal, could become a bargaining chip between the US and China as they began their third round of trade talks in Sweden. Experts weighed in after the Hong Kong conglomerate, controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing, revealed on Monday that it planned to invite a mainland firm to join a consortium behind the deal as a 'significant member'. A deadline for exclusive talks between CK Hutchison and the consortium, led by American asset manager BlackRock and the prominent Italian Aponte shipping family's Terminal Investment Limited, expired at the weekend. The conglomerate said that changes would need to be made to the membership and the structure of the transaction for the deal 'to be capable of being approved by all relevant authorities'. Lau Siu-kai, a consultant for the semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies think tank, said he believed CK Hutchison's latest move was an attempt to gain the approval of Beijing, which has signalled its anger over the deal.
South China Morning Post
3 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
What US$60 million aid package means for Philippines-US ties: ‘it speaks volumes'
The United States has ended its months-long freeze on foreign assistance with a 3 billion-peso (US$60 million) pledge to the Philippines – a modest sum that analysts say carries outsized strategic significance for Washington's Indo-Pacific priorities under President Donald Trump. Advertisement Analysts say the aid package, while limited in monetary terms, underscores the Philippines' growing importance to US economic and security strategy – offering a window into how Washington may reward aligned partners even as it pursues a protectionist trade agenda. Announced just days after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr wrapped up a three-day visit to Washington last week, the aid package will support energy, maritime and economic growth initiatives in the country, including private sector development along the Luzon Economic Corridor. The funding marks the first foreign aid announcement by the Trump administration since it declared in January that all foreign assistance would be reviewed and potentially realigned to better serve US interests. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio shakes hands with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr in Washington on July 21. Photo: Reuters US Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed plans to earmark a portion of the fund – 825 million pesos – to develop the private sector in the Luzon Economic Corridor that would help bolster investments in transport, logistics, energy and semiconductors, and generate new jobs in the country.
South China Morning Post
3 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China's birth crisis subsidies, Shaolin head defrocked: SCMP daily highlights
Catch up on some of SCMP's biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing Top economic officials from China and the United States have begun their third round of trade talks in Stockholm. The delegations – led by Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent – arrived at Rosenbad Monday afternoon. Companies linked to Shi Yongxin, the disgraced head of China's renowned Shaolin Temple, have been deregistered, and his Buddhist credentials revoked – with authorities citing 'severe damage' caused to the image of the order. The Johns Hopkins professor of political economy says Beijing's 'directed improvisation' remains essential at a time when innovation is king.
