CY Leung's popularity dives after first policy address

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's popularity plunged shortly after he delivered his maiden policy address on Wednesday, according to polls by the University of Hong Kong's public opinion programme.

The public's dissatisfaction rate with Leung rose 15 percentage points, from 24 per cent in an instant survey on the day of the address to 39 per cent in follow-up polls on Thursday and Friday.

Almost half of the respondents thought his measures to boost housing, the key area of his policy blueprint, were ineffective.

The number of people satisfied with his performance fell from 36 per cent in the snap survey to 27 per cent in Thursday's and Friday's polls.

This is still higher than the 19 per cent set by Donald Tsang Yam-kuen in 2009, but Leung's net satisfaction rate - the difference between the two - fell to minus 12 percentage points, the fifth lowest for a chief executive.

The surveys, released yesterday, found 40 per cent of respondents considered his housing measures would be ineffective.

Since Leung's speech to Legco, home sellers have marked up prices, with property agents quoted as saying that prices for large residential sites had risen by about 5 per cent.