London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Mar 04, 2026

0:00
0:00

Social bombshell: Never mind Coronavirus and protests, housing prices in Hong Kong keep going up

The way to calm the protest is through calming down the housing prices: simply confiscate the properties purchased with illegally-smuggled mainlander's money, and declare free minimum housing for all. Hong Kong has plenty of housing space to satisfy all the local’s needs, but far away from enough to satisfy the foreigners greed. China can easily contain Hong Kong, but Hong Kong I cannot contain 1.4 billion home buyers without crushing.
Protests and a pandemic have barely made a dent. As we Wrote here, very clear, just before the protests in Hong Kong began to escalate to such an extreme violence.

The REAL reason for the protest is NOT Democracy, but affordable housing. This is exactly why in Singapore not only the economy thriving but the gap between rich and poor is not provoking any protest. Singapore is also not really a democracy but there the rich can buy luxury houses but the poor can get a home for free.

Hong Kong was never a democracy anyway, but always, As a British colony as well as part of China, has much more freedoms comparing to USA, UK, France and any other so called democratic country.

In Hong Kong people always did whatever they wanted. Hong Kong Citizens always paid much less taxes, if at all, and got from their government much higher quality services, regardless their voting rights.

In the other so called democracies? Well, citizens are NEVER free to do whatever they want, especially if they are Black, Latinos, Asians, or just not rich enough to be above the law, successfully running offshore far away from the tax system.

Ordinary citizen n other countries are paying too much taxes and getting back from their government too little, if anything at all, despite their voting rights. The rich pay there no taxes at all and controlling the political system without the need to vote at all.

So, the sounds-good reason for the protests is Democracy. But the real reason is, affordably housing.

The real reason for the Hong Kong protests is desperate young people, that working too much, and have zero chance to buy a home with a normal life time salary.

They cannot afford even what Hong Kong describe as a home, and what normal people around the world would describe only as a mini prison cell.

A small, crowded, ugly, smelly and noisy room, that cost millions of dollars, where in every other country, prisoners and dogs, are getting it for free.

So what needs to be fixed in Hong Kong is not democracy, but affordable housing.

Political stability can be easily restored after breaking the monopolized real estates market by few real estate tycoons, they are the real Hong Kong MAFIA, and stop cannibalizing the market by allowing Mainland Chinese to smuggle endless money and launder it in the Hong Kong Real Estate market with common tricks, that every regulator and anti money laundering officer know, and let it go.

Simply nationalize all the assets of the the property cartels, the estates MAFIA, and confiscate all the properties of the mainland Chinese that smuggled their money illegally, to buy properties in Hong Kong, and announce minimum FREE housing policy, to every young and old citizen.

It may sound radical. But believe me: welcoming revolution and terror from desperate young mob, as you did and continue to do by allowing the illegal rise of the real estate prices, is much more radical.

Do it first.
USA, Australia, UK and France will learn from your British-Chinese wisdom, and follow!



Property in Hong Kong remains horribly expensive, despite two years of protests and pandemic. House prices in April were only 1.5% below their peak in 2019. In one tower block being built in Kai Tak, a flat of 889 square feet sold last month for over HK$30m ($3.9m).

The property market has resisted the pandemic better than it did the sars outbreak of 2003, when prices fell by almost 8%. Indeed, the market has remained tight this time partly because of decisions made back then. When sars struck, house prices had already fallen by more than 60% since 1997. To curtail supply the government resolved to “withdraw from its role of property developer”, vowed not to “sell land at a pathetic price”, and reported with satisfaction that the supply of new flats was dwindling. Hong Kong built nine new towns (now home to almost half of its population of 7.5m) between the 1970s and the early 2000s. It has not finished any since.

Instead the government has corralled housebuilding into smaller, piecemeal sites, often located in and around existing developments. It is too embarrassed to call them “new towns”, said one speaker at a recent conference hosted by Hong Kong University Business School. It calls them “new development areas” instead.

With the help of such sites, the government hopes Hong Kong will add 430,000 flats over the next ten years. That, it reckons, would satisfy rising demand. But these targets tend to be over-optimistic: since 2007, housebuilding has undershot them by about 18% in an average year. If the pattern persists, Hong Kong will add only about 350,000 homes in the next decade.

In this “baseline” scenario, housing is likely to grow dearer still, according to Morgan Stanley. So what would it take to curb property prices? The bank has also put together what it calls a “bear” scenario where prices fall by a fifth or more. For that to happen, Hong Kong would have to add about 730,000 homes over the next ten years, the bank calculates, increasing the existing stock by almost 30%.

That would require encroaching on fields, sea and sky. Hong Kong would have to build taller, packing more floor space into each site. It would have to speed up the conversion of farmland, which can take 15 or more years. And it would have to add 235,000 homes on land reclaimed from the sea. This would include the government’s controversial plan to add land to eastern Lantau, Hong Kong’s biggest island, home to 172,000 people as well as white-bellied eagles, Bogadek’s burrowing lizards and finless porpoises, which conservationists argue could be threatened by the initiative.

Although it would take years for these efforts to reach fruition, a credible plan could change sentiment - and prices -immediately, points out Praveen Choudhary of Morgan Stanley. In the bear scenario house prices fall by 20% by the end of 2022. The downward turn would, in other words, resemble one of the abrupt landings in Kai Tak that used to make arriving in Hong Kong so thrilling.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Says UK–US ‘Special Relationship’ Is Diminished Amid Middle East Dispute
UK Economic Forecasts Face Fresh Strain from Middle East Conflict and Rising Energy Costs
UK Reaffirms Close US Ties After Trump’s Public Criticism
Reeves Stresses Stability and Fiscal Discipline in UK Budget Update as Growth Outlook Shifts
UK Deploys Royal Navy Destroyer HMS Dragon to Cyprus After Drone Strike on RAF Base
Green Party Surges Past Labour in New UK Poll as Traditional Party Support Crumbles
Majority of Britons Oppose U.S. Use of UK Military Bases in Iran Conflict
UK Intensifies Evacuation Efforts from Oman, Working with Airlines to Boost Flight Capacity
Trump Condemns UK and Spain in Unusually Sharp Rift Over Iran Military Action
Trump Repeats UK Claims That Diverge from Verified Facts Amid Diplomatic Strain
UK Arrests Prominent Figures Linked to Epstein Network as Questions Mount Over US Action
Trump Says UK ‘Took Far Too Long’ to Approve Use of Airbases for Iran Strikes
Scope of Britain’s Role in the Expanding Middle East Conflict Comes Under Scrutiny
Trump Says He Is ‘Very Disappointed’ in Starmer Over Iran Comments
U.S. Embassy in Riyadh Struck by Drones Amid Escalating Iran Conflict
Starmer Confronts Strategic Test After Drone Strike Near British Base in Cyprus
Rolls-Royce Chief Signals Openness to Germany Joining UK-Led Fighter Jet Programme
UK Stocks Slip as Escalating Iran Conflict Triggers Global Market Selloff
UK Overhauls Asylum System to Make Refugee Status Temporary
Starmer Warns of ‘Reckless’ Iranian Strikes Amid Escalating Regional Tensions
British Base in Cyprus Targeted as Drones Intercepted Amid Expanding Iran Conflict
Starmer Diverges from Trump on Iran Strategy, Rejects ‘Regime Change from the Skies’
U.S. and Israel Intensify Strikes on Iran as Conflict Expands to Lebanon and Gulf States
Violent Pro-Iranian Protesters Storm U.S. Consulate in Karachi
Missile Debris Sparks Fires at Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port Near Palm Jumeirah
Iran Strikes U.S. Fifth Fleet Headquarters in Bahrain Amid Wider Gulf Retaliation
When the State Replaces the Parent: How Gender Policy Is Redefining Custody and Coercion
Bill Clinton Denies Knowing Woman in Hot Tub Photo During Closed-Door Epstein Deposition
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton Testifies on Ties to Jeffrey Epstein Before Congressional Oversight Committee
Dyson Reaches Settlement in Landmark UK Forced Labour Case
Barclays and Jefferies Shares Fall After UK Mortgage Lender Collapse Rekindles Credit Market Concerns
Play Exploring Donald Trump’s Rise to Power by ‘Lehman Trilogy’ Author to Premiere in the UK
Man Arrested After Churchill Statue Defaced in Central London
Keir Starmer Faces Political Setback as Labour Finishes Third in High-Profile By-Election
UK Assisted Dying Bill Set to Fall Short in Parliament as Regional Initiatives Gain Ground
UK Defence Ministry Clarifies Position After Reports of Imminent Helicopter Contract
Independent Left-Wing Plumber Secures Shock Victory as Greens Surge in UK By-Election
Reform UK Refers Alleged ‘Family Voting’ Incidents in By-Election to Police
United Kingdom Temporarily Withdraws Embassy Staff from Iran Amid Heightened Regional Tensions
UK Government Reaches Framework Agreement on Release of Mandelson Vetting Files
UK Police Contracts With Israeli Surveillance Firms Spark Debate Over Ethics and Oversight
United Airlines Passenger Hears Cockpit Conversations After Accessing In-Flight Audio Channel
Spain to Conduct Border Checks on Gibraltar Arrivals Under New Post-Brexit Framework
Engie Shares Jump After $14 Billion Agreement to Acquire UK Power Grid Assets
BNP Paribas Overtakes Goldman Sachs in UK Investment Banking League Tables
Geothermal Project to Power Ten Thousand Homes Marks UK Renewable Energy Milestone
UK Visa Grants Drop Nineteen Percent in 2025 as Migration Controls Tighten
Barclays and Jefferies Among Banks Exposed to Collapse of UK Mortgage Lender MFS
UK Asylum Applications Edge Down in 2025 Despite Rise in Small Boat Crossings
Jefferies Reports Significant Exposure After Collapse of UK Lender MFS
×