Time to give spicy measures the chop: Rock Chen
A DAB lawmaker said on Monday that the government should urgently remove property cooling measures, to boost sales and restore the confidence of investors and entrepreneurs.  Rock Chen dressed as the God of Wealth and wielded a fake chopper to make his point, while sending Lunar New Year greetings to the public.  He said that if "spicy measures" must remain in place, the administration should find a way to show people that Hong Kong's economy is on track.  "Since the introduction of these cooling measures, overall property transaction volumes have declined by at least half, more than 50 percent from 2020 to 2023. We all know that transaction volume is like liquidity in the overall market. Here, I am not talking about price increases, but we want to see a healthy turnover volume because otherwise, property developers won't be able to sell their properties," he said.  "Property and stock markets are not doing well, and we also face external geopolitical measures, that's why I think to restore public confidence, especially among investors and entrepreneurs, we need the government to demonstrate that they are closely monitoring the situation." Chen added that he is not worried that removing levies on non-resident buyers would lead to a return of speculation. "Because a lot of the previous property speculators are from outside. Right now, we look around the world including our motherland, the economy there is not doing very well, and also prices have been consistently falling and we look at the transaction volume, it's very low, so obviously there's no speculation because they tend to flip the properties," he said.  "Obviously, it will increase the transaction volume, but since the volume is so low, there's no speculation. Prices have dropped more than 20 percent." The "spicy measures" include extra stamp duty for owners who resell a property within two years and levies on buyers who are not Hong Kong residents or those who already own another property.