Why are property prices so high in Hong Kong ?

This video by Vox provides a great insight as to why the property prices in Hong Kong are so expensive and thus forcing ordinary citizens to live in smaller and smaller box units and even cage homes no larger than a car park space. 

The root cause of this problem is inefficient Government policies regulating land use. Only 3.7% of all urban land is let out to the people of HK to live.Of that 3.7 % of land, it is safe to say that 80% of the property is privately owned, with many developers bidding sky high prices per square foot each progressive year. There are of course Government housing, but as I checked only 4,400 was made available to the citizens in 2018. Public housing rentals are there too, but that again comes with a long waiting list and a whole list of eligibility criteria to fulfill. The rest of the time the land sales is bidded and the highest tenderer normally gets the parcel of land. Land sales is the main revenue generator for HK Government, so as to offset the negligible revenue from taxes. 

In Singapore it is the reverse. 80% of  the land meant for housing is  sold to the Housing Development Board (HDB) with a 99 year lease and subsidised pricing for the citizens who can use their CPF (retirement funds) to defray the deposit and grants provided up to $30,000 for units when the citizens live with their parents and $20,000 if they live close to their parents (within 4km radius). Hence, the prices are controlled for new sales, the buildings come with alot of amenities like ramps (for elderly), ample connectivity between the car parks and the blocks, the walkways leading to the bus stops  are covered hence minimising the use of umbrellas in case of rain. 

Town centres come well designed with a large hawker centres, connectivity, ample car park lots and high ceilings with latest mechanised fans for ventilation. 

Back to HK, the tenure is only 50 years (since 1997 when the territory was handed over to Chia) well within the life span of many Hong Kongers and then one is again forced out on to the street unless one has the means to buy the U$ 2000 per square foot of air space in downtown HK.

While there is easily 20 - 30% of usable land which can be tendered out for Government housing, it is few and far between resulting in many people waiting decades just to get a shot to live in one. In the meantime, they have to rent in squalid and cramped subdivided units. A 10 foot by 7 foot square mattress in a cage home goes for US$ 300 (S$ 400).

A room in Jurong Bukit Batok, of size 400 - 500 square foor which is perhaps 30 -45 minutes from downtown Financial District in Singapore can be rented out for a little more than US$ 500 (about S$ 700).  

A really sad situation for the poorer citizens of HK.   

So one may be able to afford an apartment, say in the 80s when price were cheaper and you were in your 20s then. Come 50 years later and in your 70s can you imagine you have saved enough (or your children) to buy another property which has probably price per square foot of 100 times of what you had paid for ??  

Taxes are amongst the lowest in the world, there is no GST, VAT, electronic road pricing and such. Hence land sales is the primary source of revenue generation and it is normally tendered out with the highest bidder winning.

The hardest hit are thus the elderly, poor families with young children and the divorcees.

Trial by Social Media

Recently there was a big fracas on the confrontation between a lady passenger and a Go Jek driver which was uploaded first to Facebook and subsequently shared thousands of times and has since gone viral.

I want to add my 2 cents worth to it, as I feel that the rise of social media and the use of built in cameras and video phones has levelled the playing field of 'he says, she says' but also can be used as evidence if the confrontation , misdemeanor, or simply misunderstanding of the situation can be viewed by perfect strangers and then there will be a 'trial by social media'. 

Why this phenomenon has arisen is that while confrontations, minunderstandings and incidents happen everyday, the 'drama' which unfolds can be worthy of prime time television and people will stop, waste their precious time and cast judgement, and comment on who was right, wrong or plain stupid.

The incident between the Go Jek driver and the lady passenger clearly shows the ignorance of people taking ride sharing apps (the lady in this instance). From what I understand, she wanted to go to town and was ignorant of the fact that she the passenger had to pay the ERP or electronic road pricing upon entering into the Central Business District. Her defence, she had taken other routes driven by other drivers which did not encounter or enter the ERP gantries.

The driver politely asked her to show him the route which she had been taking, but she insisted that he should know and from then on the situation spiralled out of hand. She insisted that he had taken her 'hostage' and called a friend to try to speak to the driver.

The other lady friend was just as clueless and the driver then upped the ante by saying that if she was this unreasonable, and was claiming that he had taken her 'hostage' then he had better drive her to the nearest police station at Toa Payoh to settle the matter amicably.

The sense of entitlement or the attitude of the lady (obviously Singaporean) was really unbecoming. She appeared very patronising. Everyone is working hard and we try to be as amiable to all people we meet and when the driver indicated to her that he did not know other routes, she should then (in hindsight) asked to stop the car, and cancel her ride there and then.

It ended when the driver drove near Toa Payoh Police station and the lady asked for help from the police officer. He asked to hear both their stories and the Go Jek driver with his video on appeared to be telling the who truth from start to end. When she did not hear the response she was expecting to get, she then attempted to get out of the car whereby the door's autolock came on.

The video ended when she finally managed to get out but the policeman was sympathetic to the driver and rightfully so. Unreasonable passengers who cry 'wolf' are unfortunately a by-product of the 'me first' generation of today. They refuse to see anybody else's point of view except their own. 

No sense of give and take at all.   

London had better get its act together ; Businesses are taking flight

London Bridge will stand but will the UK ? 

Siege mentality I am afraid 

The latest news since PM Theresa May got her mandate to go ahead to negotiate with EU leaders for the upteenth time with 'no deal' thrust upon her has started making numerous businesses shaky.

Dyson has decided to relocate its HQ to Singapore from London with the prospect of making electric cars a mouth watering one for us here. Bad news for the British people I am afraid.  

Today it was announced Barclays Bank will be pulling out of London and relocating the HQ to Dublin Republic of Ireland. The news from the British auto makers is also bleak, so what does Ms. May have from now till end March (31st) ?

This is the siege mentality which is pervasive in certain sectors of the population and when they decided to Leave Europe, they were probably thinking with their hearts, whereas in good governance, many a times it must be based on cold hard numbers and the head must always rule the heart.

We watch with bated breath.  

My Wish for this Chinese New Year ?

With business associates at the Corniche area in downtown Doha, Qatar.

Here is my sincere wish for this Chinese New Year :

a) Good Health for myself, my family, friends, business associates and the world at large

b) Peace and Goodwill amongst all of us, so that at the end of the day, we will find a way to stop the major risks facing the world at large :

- climate change
- overpopulation
- genetic modified foods causing unheard and yet unrecorded diseases
- world economic stagnation

c) Family cohesion and closeness with the ones that truly matter to me.

d) Giving back to society whenevr and  in whatever form I can afford with my limited 
    abilities and skills

e) Wealth in the form of a stable income stream and being able to be money smart and grow     the nest egg. I am not young anymore and the retirement planning of funds looms ever         and ever larger. 

Having a nice  Chinese seafood lunch at the Rocks in Sydney Australia. 

Wolves 3 West Ham 0

Just a match which I missed as it was being shown at the unearthly hour of 3.45 am in the morning ; so I put up the match highlights to 'catchup'.

The Wolves are playing a very disciplined, compact and skilful football. All kudos to them as they surge towards the best ever finish since the 1980s !

Players who are in the 'sweet spot' ie. on form, no injury and first choice clicking well with the rest of the team :

a) Diogo Jota

b) Raul Jiminez

c) Matt Doherty

d) Leon Dedonker

e) Joao Mouthino

f) Reuben Neves

g) Ryan Bennett

h) Romain Saiss

i) Conor Coady.

Wow, thats almost all the members of the current first 11 !  

Alzheimer's Disease is very crippling ; and robs us of our very dignity as a human being

Some time recently I went to a wake of a close relative, and when I was there I met with some of my mother's relatives. Very surprisingly one of my relatives had a stroke of the brain and her memory was wiped clean. 

Dementia and Alzheimer's are becoming something which we must deal with as we live longer lives. The quality of life and the memories of our past are most precious which anybody can ever wish to have.Losing that and you become a shell without knowing it. 

I wonder what are the treatments for alzheimer's as well as other afflications of the brain  commonly classifed as 'dementia'. Parkinson's is another debilitating disease. 

With my late father, my brother John, son Andrew

It was very painful to watch a once vibrant and happy person being reduced to someone who doesn't even know her closest and most loved ones.

While we strive ever onward for excellence in business and career, I am reminded of the harshness of life, that we MUST show care and concern for all those around us.  

Life is indeed unpredictable and fleeting and we must literally use each day as if it were our last day on earth.

The things I had in 1990 ; so analog and bricks and mortar !

This (in my opinion anyways) is a fascinating video, a throwback some 28 odd years where I randomly videoed what was inside my bedroom. There was nothing  to be censored ! It was just what a young man then would keep in his room, also laying out the things I felt were important to me at that time, like the photos in their frames - so last century !   

I am amazed at how technology has changed the products which we used then and now. As I panned the Sony Camcorder 7 around room, I am amazed ad how many things are gone with the wind and how some things still remain the same. More of that later.

I recall I purchased this gem of a 'toy' in  June 1990 when I visited Japan in the Akihabara electronics products district and the salesman promised me then something - he said, product made in Japan, for Japanese market is 100% better in quality than that made outside of Japan ; he was absolutely correct. The camcorder lasted me almost 10 wonderful years and I had many good experiences playing with it and taking (then) numerous meaningful videos and storing them in first cassettes and then I converted them to DVDs.All of this before the age of Youtube and file sharing generation of today.

This video starts with the cellphone, also Sony. With its antenna and a receiving range of maybe 10 meters, it was widely used then. It has now gone the way of the dinosaur. Behind the cellphone was the traditional handset phone. Does any youngster really know how to use such an ancient technology ? 

Next there was a slow panning of the table where I worked in my bedroom, and some of the stationery (there is a magnifying glass, some paper holders, an ink bottle (!) for a fountain pen, a nice portrait of a 27 year old me as well as the highlight of my student life, getting an Engineering degree from the NUS.

Then, there is a colour TV with antenna (Sanyo) also gone the way of the dinosaur. Along the ledge of the wall (the room was extended in the early '80s to add in the balcony so that the aircondition covered it and there was a small bar complete with small refrigerator, beer glasses and a display cabinet (IKEA no less) which I kept assorted stuff.    

The colour TV belonged to my Por Por or Grandmother who passed away in the early '80s and she had the TV for a good 8 to 10 years. I used it till perhaps the early '90s when I moved out after getting married. They don't make the TVs as reliable as those in the early 70s and 80s. That is my opinion. 

You can see the yellow wall and then a blue wall in the background. That is the extension to the room. The old bedroom extended till the yellow portion and the blue portion was the extension of the balcony becoming an add-on to the room. Below the Sanyo airconditioner (manual no remote then) stood the cassette player (!) and radio. This was just before the days of the CD, DVD, Blue Ray and Digital sound ! So I had 2 racks of cassette storage ; 

Panning over to the other side of the bed, on the mantelpiece lay the pager (!), my wallet, a Wolves sweat band, a dual fountain pen display, some analog clocks. 

At the glass display cabinet, there are the trophies (amazingly they never go out of fashion!) and finally to some nice pictures of a tiger family.

This is really a surrealistic throwback in time some 28 years ago !