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Bloomberg
Snaking queues of thousands of prospective apartment buyers in Hong Kong signalled authorities have made no progress in cooling a red-hot property market, where prices are at records.
People were lining up and over the weekend at Victoria Skye, a luxury project at the former airport site of Kai Tak, and at the Ocean Pride development by Cheung Kong Property Holdings Ltd. and MTR Corp.
“Successive moves by the government in recent memory to cool
the property market only resulted
in it becoming crazier,†The Stan-dard newspaper said in an editorial on Monday. “The result is a sea of madness.â€
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has been tightening rules for lenders, including restricting levels of lending to developers, as it tries to limit financial risks and take some of the heat out of the market.
The Centaline Property Centa-City Leading Index of existing homes
has advanced 23 percent in the past year, setting new price records week after week.
At a Legislative Council meeting on Monday, HKMA Chief Executive Norman Chan said levels of demand were reminiscent of 20 years ago — before Hong Kong suffered a property bust — and he expressed concern that people with limited financial resources were buying just because they thought prices would only keep going up.
Developers sold 8,616 homes in the first five months of the year, already more than were sold in any first half since new purchasing rules were introduced in 2013, the Hong Kong Economic Times reported.