S$550,000 Flat Still Available in Hong Kong

[Froggy]

$550k is not expensive BUT for a 16sqm flat? That's more than S$3,200 per sqft


HK$3m for a 170 sq ft flat?! Ex-chief executive proposes release of more land to ease Hong Kong's 'shocking' housing crunch
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 10 November, 2015, 4:39am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 10 November, 2015, 9:32am
Tony Cheung [email protected]

"It was shocking to me - a small flat to live in does have a negative effect on a person's dignity."

That was Our Hong Kong Foundation head Tung Chee-hwa's response when a woman told him she planned to buy a 170 sq ft home for more than HK$3 million for her family of three.

Tung, who was Hong Kong's first chief executive for eight years after the 1997 handover, yesterday spoke of his encounter with the woman last month when he was strolling on The Peak.

"I think people in Hong Kong are facing a difficult choice," he said. "Should we make sacrifices to have a more decent life?"

The foundation has proposed increasing land supply through five means: land reclamation outside the protected Victoria Harbour; turning over land from government and institutional use for homes; building new towns; removing red tape in town planning and development; and "thinking rationally and making wise decisions" about country parks and green belts.

Foundation researcher William Tsang Wai-him yesterday stopped short of saying homes should be built in green areas.

But he said only 8 per cent of Singapore and 38 per cent of London were green zones. "Do we really need as much as 67 per cent of our land to be green areas?" he asked. "Should we discuss pragmatically, flexibly and rationally, releasing a low [proportion] of those lands for development?"

In its written report, the foundation suggested the government could set up a platform "to review the ecological value and purpose of all country parks based on scientific standards".

Hong Kong's population could expand to 8.22 million in the next three decades, requiring more than 9,000 hectares of land to accommodate the growth. Photo: AFP

Tsang added that Hong Kong's population could expand to 8.22 million in the next three decades, so the government would need more than 9,000 hectares of land, or three times the size of Sha Tin new town.

The foundation's report found that 8,900 hectares of land were developed in the last two decades, with 88 per cent, or 7,800 hectares, built from 1995 to 2004. It said land development had since slowed due to reasons like Town Planning Board objections and legal challenges filed to development proposals.

Raymond Chan Yuk-ming, former president of the Institute of Surveyors, told the Post the foundation's five-pronged plan was similar to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's land policy.

"Whether it could be done would depend on the green groups and the Town Planning Board," Chan said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Shock at HK$3m price for 170 sq ft flat

 

[mojito]

Thankfully there is no such problem with the PAP around.

 

[harimau]

HK dun have HDB! Property LKS is the cause of the problem!

 

[streetsmart73]

Hi there


1. It is all about greed and money.
2. Erect a ministry to undertake affordable and timely public housing in hk.
3. Instead of releasing & selling land to private Developers :kma:

 

[Narong Wongwan]

17sqm is slightly smaller than Sg 1 room flat. For single occupant still ok slightly bigger than an ensuite master bedroom.
Sg 1 room flat is around half the price.....maybe soon will catch up with Hk.

 

[harimau]

Hk tops the world crony capitalism index.

That is why they have occupy HK protests.

How effective? NOT really.

 

[xebay11]

Singapore will be like that soon, better buy more property.

 

[po2wq]

Singapore will be like that soon, better buy more property.

ya, man! ...

huat ah! ...

 

[Asterix]

Ang moh da best! Tells noisy Hongkies to stop complaining and work harder!

When it crashes (not if), I will be there .........

Jake's View:

Hong Kong boasts world's most expensive homes … and cheapest

Hong Kong has topped London and New York to become the world's most expensive city to buy a home despite a softening sentiment towards the market, according to an inaugural global survey on prices in leading cities by CBRE.

Business, October 23

It seems everyone who sets up shop as a property agency these days feels obligated to do a survey on housing prices and they all tell us that we have priced ourselves out of our market.

Let's consider some alternative facts. For starters, the Housing Authority at present owns 778,000 rental flats, comprising 35 per cent of our total housing stock and the raw numbers in the latest HA accounts indicate that the average rent level of these flats was only HK$1,350 a month.

This right away says that although we have some of the most expensive housing on earth, we also have some of the very cheapest and we have more of that cheapest than we do of the expensive.

These public housing tenants also need not worry that their rents will go up. What with rebates and other concessions they are on average paying no more than they did 20 years ago and there is no movement afoot anywhere to make them pay more. For legislators to suggest it would be political suicide.

Then you get public sale housing, homes provided by the government until 2003 at about half the cost in the market. There are 325,000 of these, or about another 15 per cent of the total stock. The owners face restrictions in reselling them but their profits, either realised or unrealised, are still huge. These people also get no tears from me.

Of the other 50 per cent in the private market, figures from various sources suggest about 35 per cent is owned and 15 per cent rented. The owners have ridden the market all the way up and are on balance entirely comfortable. They may have sold from time to time but most bought right back in again somewhere else.

The private renters, well, yes, that can be a sad story and I shudder to think where I might now be if I had not obeyed my wife's orders and signed that down payment cheque many years ago. Whew! There but for the grace of God …

My point here is simply that for all the heavy burdens that some people undoubtedly carry or face if they want to buy their own homes, the large majority of Hong Kong people are not seriously stressed by their housing costs.

There is another way of looking at it. High as housing prices may be, mortgages are still obtainable here. There are economies where they are not.

I recall visiting Indonesia as an investment analyst years ago and being dismayed at how housing was effectively split between mansion and squatter slum. If you did not have the full price in cash in your hand from your own resources, you could not buy. Government was reluctant to give banks the power of foreclosure and without it they could not offer mortgages. Things have changed now but the damage to Indonesian society still resonates.

And high prices, I must have said this a thousand times in this column, are predominantly a matter of the size of monthly mortgage payments. With interest rates at rock bottom levels, affordability ratios are little more than half of what they were at the peak in 1997 although prices are almost twice as high.

Finally, an observation on volatility. The chart compares the long-term trend of housing prices in Hong Kong with those of Boston. Boston rises and eases, Hong Kong rockets and crashes. I see no reason to believe that things have fundamentally changed. Patience is a virtue.

http://www.scmp.com/business/global...asts-worlds-most-expensive-homes-and-cheapest

 

[winnipegjets]

Thankfully there is no such problem with the PAP around.

In HK, the truth surfaces. In sinkapore, the PAP hides it but slowly creeps up on you. $450k for a 99-year lease on a pigeon hole is not cheap; more so when it is relative to income.

 

[looneytan]

$550k is not expensive BUT for a 16sqm flat? That's more than S$3,200 per sqft

don't frighten people lah you, it is only $3,194.70 per sqft

 

[winnipegjets]

Ang moh da best! Tells noisy Hongkies to stop complaining and work harder!

When it crashes (not if), I will be there .........

Jake's View:

Hong Kong boasts world's most expensive homes … and cheapest

Hong Kong has topped London and New York to become the world's most expensive city to buy a home despite a softening sentiment towards the market, according to an inaugural global survey on prices in leading cities by CBRE.

Business, October 23

It seems everyone who sets up shop as a property agency these days feels obligated to do a survey on housing prices and they all tell us that we have priced ourselves out of our market.

Let's consider some alternative facts. For starters, the Housing Authority at present owns 778,000 rental flats, comprising 35 per cent of our total housing stock and the raw numbers in the latest HA accounts indicate that the average rent level of these flats was only HK$1,350 a month.

This right away says that although we have some of the most expensive housing on earth, we also have some of the very cheapest and we have more of that cheapest than we do of the expensive.

These public housing tenants also need not worry that their rents will go up. What with rebates and other concessions they are on average paying no more than they did 20 years ago and there is no movement afoot anywhere to make them pay more. For legislators to suggest it would be political suicide.

Then you get public sale housing, homes provided by the government until 2003 at about half the cost in the market. There are 325,000 of these, or about another 15 per cent of the total stock. The owners face restrictions in reselling them but their profits, either realised or unrealised, are still huge. These people also get no tears from me.

Of the other 50 per cent in the private market, figures from various sources suggest about 35 per cent is owned and 15 per cent rented. The owners have ridden the market all the way up and are on balance entirely comfortable. They may have sold from time to time but most bought right back in again somewhere else.

The private renters, well, yes, that can be a sad story and I shudder to think where I might now be if I had not obeyed my wife's orders and signed that down payment cheque many years ago. Whew! There but for the grace of God …

My point here is simply that for all the heavy burdens that some people undoubtedly carry or face if they want to buy their own homes, the large majority of Hong Kong people are not seriously stressed by their housing costs.

There is another way of looking at it. High as housing prices may be, mortgages are still obtainable here. There are economies where they are not.

I recall visiting Indonesia as an investment analyst years ago and being dismayed at how housing was effectively split between mansion and squatter slum. If you did not have the full price in cash in your hand from your own resources, you could not buy. Government was reluctant to give banks the power of foreclosure and without it they could not offer mortgages. Things have changed now but the damage to Indonesian society still resonates.

And high prices, I must have said this a thousand times in this column, are predominantly a matter of the size of monthly mortgage payments. With interest rates at rock bottom levels, affordability ratios are little more than half of what they were at the peak in 1997 although prices are almost twice as high.

Finally, an observation on volatility. The chart compares the long-term trend of housing prices in Hong Kong with those of Boston. Boston rises and eases, Hong Kong rockets and crashes. I see no reason to believe that things have fundamentally changed. Patience is a virtue.

http://www.scmp.com/business/global...asts-worlds-most-expensive-homes-and-cheapest

That's the problem when there are so many foreigners in your country. They have no commitment to the country and pretend to be smart but in reality, they are empty vessels looking after their own interest. When the property market starts to tank, he will run road with his wealth gotten from selling his abode.

 

[Froggy]

don't frighten people lah you, it is only $3,194.70 per sqft

Not freightening anyone. I'm bringing a message of hope, that for only $550k you could have a roof over your head in Hong Kong, somehow it's a miracle!

 

[winnipegjets]

Not freightening anyone. I'm bringing a message of hope, that for only $550k you could have a roof over your head in Hong Kong, somehow it's a miracle!

HK is good to visit ...to stay, it is a hell hole, unless I have ten of millions to throw around.

 

[Reddog]

Buy a flat in Shenzhen for a quarter of the cost. Rail network to HK is more reliable than Singapore MRT.

 

[Narong Wongwan]

Buy a flat in Shenzhen for a quarter of the cost. Rail network to HK is more reliable than Singapore MRT.

Same solution of staying in JB
That said Hk still have many options like their outlying islands and outskirts like NT. Options not available in Sg.

 

[xebay11]

Same solution of staying in JB
That said Hk still have many options like their outlying islands and outskirts like NT. Options not available in Sg.

So now I am justified to be petrol warrior Yah? ;>)

 

[maxxi]

And all leasehold in HK is until 2045 then all land except a Church at TST will revert to China motherland.

 

[eatshitndie]

6 tycoons own almost 3 times more land than the hk gov. how to release more land for public housing?

 

[Asterix]

That's the problem when there are so many foreigners in your country. They have no commitment to the country and pretend to be smart but in reality, they are empty vessels looking after their own interest. When the property market starts to tank, he will run road with his wealth gotten from selling his abode.

His point is 35% of the total housing stock in HK is owned by the government and rented out at heavily subsidized rents to locals at average rent of SGD 240 per month, therefore it is a myth that all Hongkies are stressed out by high property prices! Sinkie gahbrament got do that or not? Hongkies comprain too much, the ones that make the most noise are those that could have but did not get on the property price cycle when it was at the trough. However, the point is that 35% of their "poor" people can rent at SGD 250 per month, courtesy of the high income tax payers, some of whom are foreigners. Why should these highly intelligent and hard working foreigners (like me ) be banned from making money from HK's high PRIVATE property prices, when they pay the same taxes? The percentage of foreigners is quite small in HK and they cannot get the subsidized SGD 250 per month rentals that 35% of the local population "enjoy", but that is a function of immigration policy not housing policy. Sinkies get what they voted for, but that is not my problem arh!

[video=youtube;xPjxXCmTA7c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPjxXCmTA7c[/video]