New property cooling measures

[wheels up]

So now you need a 40 percent deposit to buy a property under 7 million HKD - so that means to buy a 6 million HKD property (if you can find one that you could actually live in), with deposits, stamp duties, agents commissions, solicitors fees etc. you need the best part of 3 million dollars - cash! And if you're not a PR stick another 15% on top of that (900k) and double the stamp duty (380k) if it's your second property.

Throw in a basic renovation and furniture and you're looking at stonking up around 3.5 million cash to buy your little box that you will never be able to raise a family in.

You do the maths - how many years of HKPA (assuming you weren't blowing it all on rent) would it take to afford just the deposit??? And they figure the net result of all of this will be to put upward pressure on rents!

When will the insanity end???

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/a...oling?page=all

[bringbackthe80s]

Key word is RENT RENT RENT. It's about time we realise buying doesn't benefit you but the bank who gets the interests on the mortgage.

[wheels up]

Go on, tell us...

[ShotOne]

Sounds as though this "cooling measure" (more of a ladder-pulling-up measure) will have the reverse of the intended effect, just like most other government attempts to skew the market anywhere in the world.

If you have worthwhile info, c rod, let's hear it ..otherwise please don't waste everyone's time with cryptic comments

[Threethirty]

Once again they're targeting a section of the housing market that is not the primary reason for the bubble we find ourselves in. As a result they are penalising a section of the community that need the help in the form of reduced down payments. How will this be a deterrent to a group of people who cross the border with cash in suitcases?!
As anyone knows increased supply drives down prices but the greedy f@cks who own this place aren't interested in the good of the community hence we see half ass measures like this that affect real people and don't solve the issue.
They should be targeting the high end market and attempting to stop these crazy sky high valuations but alas no this is just to make it look as though something is being done. They daren't address the real issue primarily because Hong Kong is owned and run by property moguls who would seriously dislike anyone upsetting the apple cart.

[Cpt. Underpants]

The "mainlanders" are NOT the cause of the property bubble in Hong Kong.

Just as the Nazis in pre WW2 Germany were blaming the Jews for their economic woes, they need not have looked further than themselves for the collapsing economy.

The greed and avarice of the Hong Kong People is the cause of the property balloon.

Don't blame the visitors, unable to defend themselves, for what is of OUR OWN making.

If WE weren't all so greedy, this wouldn't be happening.

[ACMS]

So who do you blame, the person asking the high price or the person willing to pay it?

Seems to me that there are a lot of mainlanders willing to splurge the cash willy nilly. That is driving the prices up.

Demand exceeds supply.

[Cpt. Underpants]

Don't demonise the mainlanders for a property orgy of our own making.

HKG locals are also calling mainland shoppers "locusts" and "rats", blaming them for increasing prices and short supplies.

Who exactly is putting up the rents?

Who has dropped any resemblance of border control for mainland visitors?

I've had the personal experience of meeting the asking price of a property in HKG in an offer, only to have it rejected BY THE VENDOR - with a disproportionate increase - "because I didn't argue about the price".

This has the makings of another "Kristallnacht". Be very, very careful.

[Frogman1484]

It is only a matter of time...:ok:

Estimating the exact time when a bubble is due to collapse can be a difficult exercise and extremely hazardous to one's financial health, because, as John Maynard Keynes put it, "the markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent."

Note that it only takes a relatively minor event to prick a bubble, but once it is pricked, the bubble cannot "inflate" again.

[crewsunite]

SF - Have you pls got any link to that article or key words to do a archive search.

Anyone got any contacts to these lenders..

[Dan Winterland]

Hong Kong's Decade-Long Property Boom Could Be Ending: Chart - Bloomberg Business (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-16/hong-kong-property-price-boom-seen-nearing-end-chart-of-the-day)

[Long Dong Silver]

There's always going to be a lack of supply of housing in Hong Kong - prices will always be ridiculous

[Plus852]

This is a country ran by property developers. It's simple for them: control the supply and the prices will stay high. Prices will never go down substantially...

And this is just one of the many monopolistic systems in HK. Communists when they need, capitalists when they want. 😡

[azhkman]

I have not looked up the regulations, but my guess would be that Hitachi and other such lenders are not deposit taking institutions and then not subject to the same requirements as bank based lenders.