Hong Kong Needs a Bold Rethink on Home Ownership: Andy Mukherjee

The growing unease in Hong Kong’s property market is starting to overwhelm policymakers. All the carrots they have dangled before prospective buyers have failed to stem the 28% slide in prices that began three and a half years ago.

The cycle of gloom is still nowhere near as vicious as the six-year, 70% price deflation that followed the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98. For one thing, the post-pandemic economic situation isn’t as bad as it was back then: The unemployment rate of 3.1% is far below the 5.5% average between June 1997 and July 2003. For another, the delinquency rate among borrowers whose mortgages are in negative equity — ...