On the one hand, there are a large number of young people who cannot afford to buy houses, and on the other, property prices are breaking records. Hong Kong's housing problem has always been a top priority for the Hong Kong government.

In his third policy address during his term of office, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said that the housing problem is not only the most serious livelihood problem facing Hong Kong society, but also the source of some public grievances. In this policy address, Carrie Lam has set a clear goal for the Hong Kong Government, that is, to ensure that everyone in Hong Kong and his family has a house to live in, so that people can afford to buy and pay for their homes.

It is proposed in the policy address that the Hong Kong Government will gradually introduce short-and medium-term support measures, including a substantial increase in the number of transitional housing projects. relax the property price ceiling of the Mortgage Scheme for first-time home buyers-the property price ceiling for first-time home buyers can apply for a mortgage loan of up to 90% from the current HK $4 million to HK $8 million, that is, for a 8 million house, you can get on the bus with a down payment of only 800000.

In addition, the Hong Kong Government will take a multi-pronged approach to increase land supply and continue to promote the "Lantau tomorrow" reclamation project.

In terms of the market, Hong Kong's local property stocks rose sharply in intraday trading today, and generally still rose sharply as of the close.

The Hong Kong government has taken a number of measures to solve the housing problem, with a down payment of 10% for 8 million houses.

Today, Carrie Lam delivered her third policy address during her term of office and reviewed and summarized the past housing policies. She said:

The housing problem is the most serious livelihood problem facing Hong Kong society at present. After taking office, she immediately positioned the housing policy. Although the adjusted housing policy is not small, it still fails to meet the housing needs of some Hong Kong people. Therefore, the Hong Kong Government will next set a clear goal so that every Hong Kong person and his family members do not have to think too much about the housing problem, so that every Hong Kong citizen can have a house.

Carrie Lam said that at the end of last year, the ratio of new public and private housing supply for the next 10 years under the long term Housing Strategy (that is, from 2019 to 2028) was adjusted from 60:40 to 70:30, but this is a medium-and long-term goal, and when the target can be achieved still depends on the speed of increasing land supply, so short-and medium-term support measures are now proposed. According to the contents of the policy address, the Times abstracted the following major measures:

1. There will be a substantial increase in transitional housing projects to provide a total of 10000 flats in the next three years to relieve the poor living conditions and the pressure on families waiting for public housing for a long time. The Government has set aside funds for this purpose to increase from HK $2 billion announced earlier to HK $5 billion. To put it simply, the so-called transitional housing project is mainly to provide transitional accommodation for applicants who are waiting for public housing.

2. The provision of living allowance to low-income households who are not public housing or CSSA, including those on the waiting list for public housing, will be paid twice in the coming year.

3. To study the redevelopment of factory buildings under the Hong Kong Housing Authority as public housing, so as to increase the supply of public rental housing to meet the needs of public housing applicants.

4. At present, of the 39 tenants purchase Scheme (TPS) estates, there are about 42000 unsold flats, with an average price of about 80% discount on the assessed market value. In order to further meet the home purchase requirements of public housing tenants, the Housing Authority has made active arrangements to speed up the sale of these flats.

The TPS is launched by the Housing Authority to meet the home purchase needs of public housing tenants, so that tenants can buy their existing flats at reasonable prices, and those who do not want to buy them can continue to rent their original flats.

5. A total of about 8600 HOS and "Green Home" flats will continue to be sold in 2019, and it is expected that the number will reach about 12000 in 2020, so as to meet the home ownership expectations of the public as soon as possible.

The so-called "HOS" is the Home ownership Scheme, which mainly provides another option for people who do not have enough income to buy private housing and who are not eligible (or unwilling) to move into public housing. The housing estates built under this scheme are commonly referred to as HOS flats.

On the other hand, "Green Home purchase", formerly known as the "Green form Home purchase pilot Scheme", is recommended by the Hong Kong Government to the Housing Authority to select suitable public housing projects under construction and sell them in the form of a pilot scheme to eligible "green form" tenants who are mainly existing public housing tenants. the price of flats is lower than that of traditional HOS flats. To put it simply, only people living in public housing are eligible to buy, that is, "green forms".

6. This year, we will continue to launch 3000 "White form Home ownership Scheme (WFHOS) Secondary Market Scheme" to meet the home purchase needs of more white form people.

The so-called white-form people are those who do not have private housing and do not meet the needs of public housing applicants. In fact, they are sandwich floor and they can buy HOS flats free of premium.

7. A private residential site at Anderson Road will be sold in the first quarter of 2020 and a second pilot "first home" (first home purchase) project will be launched. under the terms of sale, developers are required, in addition to private residential flats, to build about 1000 "first home" flats and sell them to eligible persons at below-market prices.

8. To help first-time home buyers, the property price ceiling of the Mortgage Programme will be relaxed. In other words, the property price ceiling for first-time home buyers who can apply for a maximum 90% mortgage loan will be raised from the current HK $4 million to HK $8 million, while the maximum property price ceiling for a maximum 80% mortgage loan will be raised from HK $6 million to HK $10 million. The latter includes home-for-use mortgages.

It needs to be explained here, that is, for first-time buyers, only 10% of the down payment can be made for a house with a total price of 4 million in the past, but now it has increased to 8 million. According to the improved standard, the down payment for a house of 8 million yuan is only 800000. The remaining 720 loans, based on the current Hong Kong mortgage interest loans, have a repayment maturity of 30 years and a monthly mortgage repayment of HK $28355.

Some Hong Kong citizens told reporters that this is very critical. In fact, many people in Hong Kong can pass the repayment stress test, but they cannot afford the down payment. This practice releases the pressure on the public to buy, and the increase in demand for housing may further stimulate the rise in property prices.

A multi-pronged approach to increase land supply

Carrie Lam said that in order to meet the public's demand for housing, it is necessary to persistently increase land supply. therefore, the Hong Kong Government will speed up planning and apply the Lands resumption Ordinance and other applicable ordinances. Resumption of the following three types of private land for 100% public housing (including public housing, Green Home purchase, Home ownership Scheme) and "first home purchase" and related facilities development:

1. It may have development potential, but it is not included in new development areas or other development projects. Most of them are privately owned brown land in the New Territories, with an estimated area of about 450 hectares. the rezoning of government land for housing use has been one of the major sources of housing land supply in recent years.

2. To resume the private land in the squatter areas of Cha Kwo Ling Village, Ngau Chi Wan Village and Chuk Yuen Junction Village which are located in the urban area and are suitable for high-density housing development, so as to speed up the development of these seven hectares of urban land and redevelop them into new areas dominated by public housing. So far, the Government has notified about 700 hectares of private land to be resumed, of which more than 400 hectares are expected to be resumed in the next five years, far more than the 20 hectares recovered in the past five years.

3. Reclamation of land from the sea. It includes the option of reclamation in central waters for the development of Jiaoyi Chau artificial Island and other inshore reclamation outside the Victoria Harbour. The reclamation of the central waters under the Lantau Vision tomorrow will create a large area of new land and is an important measure to increase land in the medium to long term.

Local property stocks in Hong Kong generally soar

Spurred by the above news, Hong Kong's local property stocks generally saw a sharp rise in intraday trading today. Local property leader CK Asset (1113.HK) rose more than 3% in a short time. As of the close, CK Asset was up 2.58% at HK $53.65.

Henderson Land Development, another local property leader, rose more than 4 per cent at one point to close 2.82 per cent higher.

New World Development (0017.HK) rose even more, closing up 4.06 per cent. On September 25 this year, New World Development announced that he would donate part of his agricultural land for the construction of public housing, hoping to alleviate the housing shortage in Hong Kong. At the group results conference held on the same day, Zheng Zhigang, executive vice chairman and general manager of New World, announced that the group would donate a total of 3 million square feet (more than 270000 square meters) of agricultural land in different locations.

The Hong Kong economy has been hit by violence in recent months, and the performance of some listed companies has suffered a significant setback.

According to people's Daily online, Carrie Lam pointed out in his 2019 policy address that Hong Kong's economy grew only slightly by 0.5% in the first half of this year, the worst performance since the 2009 recession.

As a result of the violence in recent months, the Hong Kong economy is facing unprecedented challenges. Since July this year, the number of visitors to Hong Kong and retail sales have dropped sharply, exports have continued to decline, the atmosphere of business, investment and consumption has been very low, and the business performance of some industries has been the worst on record. Hong Kong's economy should have entered a technical recession in the third quarter, and the SAR government lowered its economic growth forecast for the whole year to 0-1% in mid-August.

The impact on Hong Kong's economy has been reflected in the performance of some locally listed companies in Hong Kong.

0178.HK International, a leading cosmetics chain in Hong Kong and even in Asia, is a well-known brand for mainland tourists, whose performance has fallen sharply after violence in Hong Kong in recent months has affected the willingness of mainland tourists to visit Hong Kong.

The group achieved turnover of HK $1.61 billion between July and September this year, a sharp year-on-year drop of 20.8 per cent, according to an earnings report released yesterday.

Sasha International said that in the Hong Kong market, overall sales performance in the above statistical period was weak, mainly due to a decline in the number of visitors to Hong Kong. After 17 consecutive months of positive growth, the number of visitors from mainland China recorded a year-on-year decline for the first time in July, and the decline was even more severe. The number of transactions of mainland visitors in the group fell sharply by 51.2%, while that of local visitors fell by 3.0%.

Sasha International said that in view of the uncertain business environment in Hong Kong, the Group was actively taking various contingency measures to meet various challenges. Shop rent is one of the largest operating expenses and the group's primary cost reduction target. The owners of some street shops are willing to reduce rents in the short term to tide over the difficulties together. The profitability of shops is an important operating indicator of the Group. the Group will continue to review the market situation and strive for a corresponding rent reduction according to the impact of the sales and profitability of each store. and, when necessary, reduce the area of shops or sublet shops with lower costs in the vicinity, so as to maintain the competitiveness of the shop network, protect the profitability of shops, and give priority to the protection of employees' livelihood during these difficult times.

The Hong Kong and Macao business of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery, a Hong Kong jewellery retailer, has also been significantly affected by recent events.

According to the company's recent operating data, retail sales in mainland China increased by 4% in the third quarter of 2019, but retail sales in Hong Kong and Macao fell 35% year-on-year, and same-store sales in Hong Kong and Macao fell 44%.

Chow Tai Fook Jewellery said that during the above-mentioned period, the company's operating performance in Hong Kong and Macau was affected by the high base and the current situation in Hong Kong.