Property dealer and Hong Kong regulators face-off in housing market

Global Business

The face-off between Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong Holdings and Hong Kong’s regulators who want to cool the property market turns up a notch. Li’s property firm manages to sell more than 100 flats or half of what’s on offer, in 90 minutes, even as regulators tightened rules. Cathy Yang filed this report from Hong Kong.

Property dealer and Hong Kong regulators face-off in housing market

The face-off between Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings and Hong Kong's regulators who want to cool the property market turns up a notch. Li's property firm manages to sell more than 100 flats or half of what's on offer, in 90 minutes, even as regulators tightened rules.

Highlights:

  • Property developer Cheung Kong is offering first-time buyers with a mortgage plan too hard to resist: loan cover of up to 90 percent of price.
  • This loan cover from Li Ka-shing’s property firm is a direct response countering government moves to cool the red-hot property market.
  • More than 100 flats in this new development put up for sale in less than two hours. But it also ratcheted up a brewing face-off with regulators trying to keep a lid on property prices.
  • Cheung Kong’s new mortgage plan gives hope to many, but it falls short of addressing the long-term solution to the housing problem: more land for homes in a cramped city bursting at its seams.