Opinion | CY Leung's housing policies have made situation worse
Albert Cheng says the government should stop interfering in the market and address the real issue by building more affordable homes
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying beat his rival in the popularity race and hence won the support of Beijing to take the top job in Hong Kong, mainly by blowing his own trumpet over his land and housing policies.
He also managed to fool a lot of people, including intellectuals and the professional elite, into believing he had the will and the ability to resolve the two thorny issues at the heart of our deep-rooted social conflicts and widening wealth gap.
But as a famous saying goes: "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."
The truth will out. For more than 18 months, since Leung came to power, housing problems have worsened rather than improved. It's still extremely difficult for Hongkongers to buy their own homes because of the unrealistically high property prices and the adverse consequences of the government's tough measures to cool the market.
It remains a pipe dream for most Hongkongers to realise their most basic housing needs because of the severe land shortage.
Leung has in fact not addressed our perennial housing problems, just like his predecessor, whom he vehemently criticised for surrendering to the rich and powerful property tycoons and allowing government-business collusion to fester, eating away at our core values.
