Tag Archives: Hong Kong Property Market

IMF shares HK’s concern about asset price inflation

Posted on 4 Nov 2009 | Comments Off on IMF shares HK’s concern about asset price inflation

It hails govt move to increase land supply to the market

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said yesterday it shares Hong Kong’s concern that the city may face sharp asset price inflation and encouraged the government to look at increasing land supply for property development.

‘We share the authorities’ concerns that a credit- asset price cycle could take hold, leading to a sharp run-up in prices for certain real and financial assets,’ the IMF said in an annual report on Hong Kong.

‘While such asset price movements are part of the natural equilibrating mechanism of the Hong Kong economy, there is a risk that prices could become driven more by short-term liquidity conditions, divorced from fundamental forces of supply and demand.’

The Washington-based organisation also said it had raised its gross domestic product (GDP) forecasts for Hong Kong following a recent improvement in the economy.

It forecasts a 2 per cent decline in GDP this year, against a 3.5 per cent decline previously, and 5 per cent GDP growth in 2010, up from 3.5 per cent previously. Continue reading →

Comments Off on IMF shares HK’s concern about asset price inflation

Posted in Overseas Property

Tagged ,

HK wants to avoid property bubble

Posted on 3 Nov 2009 | Comments Off on HK wants to avoid property bubble

Hong Kong’s move to tighten regulations on mortgage lending last month showed that the government wants to avoid a big property bubble, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang said yesterday.

Mr Tsang: Said that the government had tools available to stabilise the market but did not give details

‘We do not want to see a huge property bubble developing in Hong Kong,’ he said during a business lunch. He added that the government had tools available to stabilise the market but did not give details except to say that any action would be motivated by a need for stability, transparency and smooth market operations.

Prices of mass market residential property have surged more than 20 per cent this year, despite the economic downturn, while luxury property prices have soared more than 40 per cent, benefiting from excess liquidity globally and an influx of cash from newly rich mainland Chinese.

Mr Tsang, however, said that the current surge in prices exhibited far fewer signs of speculative behaviour than a previous property market bubble in 1997 which burst amid the Asian financial crisis.

Last month, Mr Tsang said that the government, which sells land by auction, could make more available for residential property development. Continue reading →

Comments Off on HK wants to avoid property bubble

Posted in Overseas Property

Tagged ,