'Spicy measures' relaxation met with mixed reactions
The relaxation of property cooling measures drew mixed reactions from the industry and scholars on Wednesday. Responding to the measure introduced in Chief Executive John Lee’s Policy Address, an associate professor of economics at Shue Yan University, Rita Li, said the loosening of property curbs – implemented about a decade ago – will not stop home prices in the SAR from falling. Li said the move to slash the Buyer's Stamp Duty and the New Residential Stamp Duty by half, from 15 percent to 7.5 percent, came too late. The academic says she expects home prices in the territory to drop five to 10 percent in the second half of this year. Echoing Li's sentiment, real estate services providers, Colliers and JLL said the adjustment in stamp duty would only have a limited impact. "The relaxation of cooling measures is only a band-aid solution that is unlikely to reverse the downward trend of home prices,” JLL’s chairperson, Joseph Tsang, said. “Instead, the government should reduce the target for private housing supply, reintroduce the mechanism of triggering of land for auction to replace the current regular tender, and remove all cooling measures in the housing market, including stress tests."  However, Asif Ghafoor, the CEO of Spacious – an online residential real estate marketplace, welcomed the loosening of the so-called "spicy measures", and said he expects it could help stabilise housing prices. "Given the external situation with interest rates, the sentiment around house prices and the sentiment around the Chinese economy, we don't necessarily see an increase in property prices, but we do expect property prices to stabilise," Ghafoor said. He also said the cut in stamp duties will stimulate the transaction volume. Real estate services companies, including CBRE and Midland Realty, also expressed optimism that the relaxation can end the downward trajectory of housing prices.