Chief Executive John Lee wants young people to stick to private-sector homes…
Hong Kong’s leader has called on young people not to waste “potential and opportunities” by “deliberately” depressing their income below the limit allowed to apply for public housing.
Speaking to reporters ahead of his weekly Executive Council meeting on Tuesday, … Lee said he had heard of some people ensuring that their earnings remained below the monthly income limit in an effort to be allocated a government-subsidised unit.
…The chief executive urged young people to work towards their aspirations and to reconsider settling for public housing. “If you give up on your dreams simply because of a public housing unit, I believe that would be regrettable,” he said.
It’s not regrettable at all. The amount of wealth you can accumulate over the years by not paying private-sector rental or mortgage payments makes applying for a public flat an entirely rational move.
If you want public housing reserved for the genuinely poor, you need private housing that is affordable to the rest. Instead, Hong Kong administrations even now work to keep land – thus private-sector homes – expensive. (Indeed, they’ve distorted the market so much that some newer private-sector apartments are, if anything, smaller than the public ones.)
One (implicit) reason officials are squeamish about evicting relatively well-off tenants from public housing is that it would mean financially semi-ruining them. A family on around HK$40,000 a month – roughly 50% above median household income – could see rent multiply from, say, 10% to 50% of their income.
(Hate to ask, but, as someone who spent most of his working life as a cop, has John Lee ever paid market rates for housing?)
On the subject of household incomes – some people’s are going to take a hit…
Some of China’s largest state-backed financial firms are asking employees in Hong Kong to return a portion of their pay, extending President Xi Jinping’s “common prosperity” campaign to the offshore business hub.
Some Hong Kong-based executives and even former employees at China Everbright Group and China Huarong International Holdings have been asked to pay back part of their past bonus in recent months…
The clawback amounts to less than 10 percent of bonuses at China Everbright, the main Hong Kong-listed arm of Everbright Group … after the central government inspected its local operations.
It is unclear how many employees will be impacted by the policy and how far it will extend below the executive ranks.
The development marks an escalation of austerity efforts at state-owned financial conglomerates, which have so far mainly limited pay for mainland-based employees.
Chinese bankers have come under increasing pressure in recent years as the Communist Party tightened its grip on the US$66 trillion (HK$514.8 trillion) financial sector, where high pay has also drawn public criticism.
Xi’s signature drive has sent shock waves through China’s financial industry since it was rolled out in 2021.
Won’t ‘even former employees’ be entitled to tell their old company in no uncertain terms to drop dead?
HK47 mitigation hearings will be suspended for a month or so, for reasons that are unclear. Something else for yesterday’s ‘fact sheets’ to explain.
“Won’t ‘even former employees’ be entitled to tell their old company in no uncertain terms to drop dead?”
Certainly, if they do so from LA or Vancouver or Sydney, don’t care what happens to any relatives back in the motherland, and have no plans to ever return.
HK47 mitigation hearings will be suspended for a month or so, for reasons that are unclear.
The judges want their summer holiday
Public housing is for new migrants from the mainland, silly, not mere Hongkongers!
Perhaps a few China Everdim bankers will qualify now?
How quickly can mainland migrants get public housing? My understanding is locals have to wait an average of 5 years or more for a public house, but it seems like mainland migrants on one way permits can get them much faster? Sometimes it seems like in a couple of years?
Can someone clarify this? Do mainlanders get to jump the queue and other stuff like so many of my local friends claim? I am having trouble separating facts from the total disdain for mainlanders that many locals I know have.
“Hong Kong’s leader has called on young people not to waste “potential and opportunities” by “deliberately” depressing their income below the limit allowed to apply for public housing.
Speaking to reporters ahead of his weekly Executive Council meeting on Tuesday, … Lee said he HAD HEARD* of some people ensuring that their earnings remained below the monthly income limit in an effort to be allocated a government-subsidised unit.”
Wow…Droopy Dog, not relying at all on hearsay, has mastered what it takes to be a truly inspiring leader! How lucky for the people of HK.
*my emphasis
As I was saying…
Senior HK government officials are more isolated from the daily lives of average Hongkongers than many gweilos.
When was the last time a senior official took a bus, a mini-bus or rode the MTR?
When they use a public hospital, they use a segregated express shroff window & receive preferential care, just like in apartheid South Africa.
Which schools do their children attend? Not HK public schools, you can bet.
As for public housing, senior officials live in government-provided mansions or spacious government flats, and the rest receive generous housing allowances. Just ask the Chief Executive.
“Let them eat cake” should be their motto.
@Eric Blair
The official explanation for preferential treatment (aka queue jumping) of civil servants in public hospitals is that it enables the aforesaid to return to their duties ASAP, thus continuing the smooth operation of the government and its organs. This makes sense. So, for example, if a Mr Wong starts to develop cataracts he can get this sorted in a couple of months and we have saved the sight of a precious soul who would otherwise (shudder!) have had to go private. Tough tits on Granny Wong who will have to wait a couple of years (stop complaining, you don’t need good eyesight to be a cleaner), but gotta have that smooth functioning – every cloud etc.
Parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts – every member of every Hong Kong family, rich or poor, are experts at applying for, obtaining, and never, ever giving up a public housing unit. This is not about young people and their aspirations. This is about a habit that is culturally ingrained in the Hong Kong psyche that government officials are unable to resolve – not least because all their relatives – if not themselves – are part of the same racket. Another example is NT small houses – but don’t get me started.
Visible signs of ineligibility for public housing are in their car parks, rest areas (where nearly everyone can somehow afford a maid (who sleeps on the kitchen floor), and in some cases in the attached shopping malls that cater to middle class tastes.
Then look at the illegal alterations – which can be seen quite clearly at night through the windows of block after block – as further signs of inappropriate affluence and governmental indifference.
These kids know that the only way they can save and hope to get on the property ladder is by saving. That concept is in their DNA, handed down across at least 3 generations of Hong Kong folk.
And ever it was so…Amen.
Jack Bennett parted the bead curtain with one hand and peeked inside. It was
dark inside with only a few scattered customers.
“Hello Joe” a husky voice said out of nowhere “you come and have a drink in
my bar”. Bennett looked into a pair of almond shaped doe eyes. They were
inscrutable yet inviting. He stepped forward.
He had never been in the Plum Blossom Lounge before. The barman served
his whiskey on the rocks. A glitterball slowly rotated on the ceiling. The sign of
a classy joint, he thought. They even mixed the nuts.
“Hey Joe, you buy me drink, huh ?” the husky voice with the big brown eyes
asked. There she was again, standing next to him, wearing a cheong-sam
with a slit up to her knee. Before he could answer she ran a delicate finger
over the short sleeve of his new safari. “Nice suit, Joe”.
Jack Bennett had heard numerous sailors’ tales about the anatomical
peculiarities of Chinese wimmin. But a prominent george adam’s apple was not one of
them.
Bambi drew her finger teasingly over his hairy, manly arm, past the digital
watch with 5 functions and it came to rest on his upper leg.
“Oh, you so man” she whispered breathlessly.
You too, honey, Jack Bennett thought.
“Can I make friend with you ?” she enquired. “You make love long time to Mei
Ling…….”
(to be continued, no doubt)
Mark Bradley
I’d never wait five years for a public house.
To be honest, I can scarcely walk past one.