Chapter 644: The Game of Affordable Housing Policy

Chapter 644: The Game of Affordable Housing Policy

Chapter 644: The Game of Affordable Housing Policy
Anyone who has lived in the future knows that the housing prices in Hong Kong are ridiculously expensive, and even often exceed those of top international metropolises such as Tokyo and New York.

However, whether it is New York, Tokyo or the future cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in the mainland, although the housing prices in these places are expensive, locals still have the choice to live in other places, or the remote locations of these cities can be considered acceptable;

But Hong Kong is different. This is a city and the citizens here can only choose to live here. The public transportation is not very good. For example, the most basic subway ticket. Subways in other places are losing money. The government subsidizes people's livelihood, but Hong Kong's subway company is responsible for its own profits and losses. Even though it mainly relies on real estate, the ticket price is still much more expensive than other cities.

Therefore, in the past, if you searched the words "Hong Kong cage house" on the Internet, you would find some jaw-dropping living environments, which would be enough to make mainlanders' good impression of Hong Kong disappear instantly. To exaggerate a little, prisons are much better than the environments of these "cage houses".

Of course, from a development perspective, these "cage houses" are definitely better than the "squatter houses" when Yang Wendong first traveled through them in the 50s. But at that time the whole society was poor, and this was a normal economic phenomenon. However, the "cage houses" in Hong Kong are the tragedy of ordinary people after being controlled by capital monopoly.

However, the living environment of the lower classes in Hong Kong did not develop into this state overnight, but was gradually transformed with the skyrocketing real estate market over the past few decades. During this process, successive governors and the Hong Kong government had also thought about reversing these things, and the first one was Murray MacLehose;
However, this involves the entire Hong Kong real estate tycoon group, property holder group and even overseas capitalists. It can be said that promoting this matter means making enemies with most of the wealth holders in Hong Kong society, so it is naturally full of difficulties.

From the 70s to the 90s, many governors of Hong Kong made some efforts for this purpose, but with little success. During the peak period of real estate in history, the Hong Kong government and HSBC wanted to suppress Hong Kong housing prices in the 90s. As a result, the real estate consortiums headed by the four major families joined forces with overseas banking consortiums to fight against it, and ultimately it came to nothing. Later, the first Chief Executive launched an construction plan, but it was not successful either.

Now was not the time to think, so Yang Wendong quickly replied, "Mr. Governor, you want to promote this plan, which is indeed beneficial to the ordinary people of Hong Kong. I naturally agree with it."

In fact, even if he participated, it would be difficult for him to succeed if he stood on the side of the Hong Kong government, as this would be tantamount to confronting all capital, which is completely different from industry.

The industrial industry is pure competition. You may be strong and I am weak, or you may be weak and I am strong. Competition will always exist and one side can be used to attack the other. However, the real estate market is different. This industry prospers together and all capitals can make profits. When all capitals are optimistic, all capitals can make profits and they will unite to fight against all unfavorable factors.

No one can resist this trend, not even the government. Even within the government, people will be dragged into it because of the benefits of land auctions. This is the nature of the real estate industry. It seems to be able to bring huge wealth to everyone, even if it is only on paper.

The only exception is when an economic crisis occurs, such as when the consumption potential of the entire market is exhausted, or when the number of newborns drops sharply, etc.

But it is difficult for a country to experience this kind of situation, but it is difficult for Hong Kong, because as a bridge between the East and the West, it can obtain a large amount of international capital, and even mainland capital in the future. This is also the fundamental reason why Hong Kong's housing prices will soar in the future.

MacLehose also understood what Yang Wendong meant, so he smiled and said, "Mr. Yang, you are relatively successful in the Hong Kong real estate industry, and I don't have much experience in business, so I would like to ask, if the Hong Kong government wants to build affordable housing, what should it do?"

"I think we can consider this issue from two aspects." Yang Wendong thought about it and decided to express his own opinion.
In any case, MacLehose's original intention was good, and this matter was beneficial to many of the lowest-class Hong Kong people or those who migrated from the mainland;
Maybe this thing will not be completely successful in the end, but there is a difference between being successful by 1% and being successful by 10%. A difference of a few points may affect thousands or even tens of thousands of people.

As for him, he was not going to get involved in this matter. He just wanted to provide some exciting experience for future generations of the Internet, which would not be a big loss to him.

MacLehose said, "Please go ahead."

Yang Wendong said: "First, we should not be too idealistic in doing anything. We should consider the reality. The large-scale construction of these public housing by the Hong Kong government will inevitably affect the interests of existing British and Chinese real estate tycoons, and even the interests of some Hong Kong legislators, officials or some local non-political and business people.
Any reform cannot be forceful, but needs to take everyone into consideration. Therefore, when the Hong Kong government first announced the public housing, it should not be radical, but should first say that it would build a small number of units to avoid a violent market reaction.

In addition, the affordable housing that is built, whether it is publicized or actually implemented, is targeted at the very poor, such as families with disabled people, families with serious illnesses, lonely elderly people, and elderly people who participated in the war of resistance against Japan. These people basically have no ability to buy a house, and it has almost no impact on the existing real estate market. "

"Mr. Yang, your suggestion is very good. It will avoid any unnecessary conflicts." Murray MacLehose nodded.

Yang Wendong added: "You are too kind. In fact, even if the Hong Kong government really builds affordable housing, even if the budget is sufficient, it needs to be done step by step. The affordable housing built in the first step should first take care of the most difficult groups, and it can also reflect that the Hong Kong government's policy is for the people, which is good for everyone. As for the future, whether the affordable housing will be further expanded to other groups, we will talk about it later. Don't provoke conflicts now. At least build the houses for these difficult groups with peace of mind first.

Instead of openly influencing the market on a large scale, causing social conflicts, and causing a large number of ordinary people to scramble for these affordable housing resources, doing so can only do more harm than good. "

With the ability of the Hong Kong government and MacLehose, they could have built some affordable housing even if many financial groups opposed it. However, these affordable housings really made countless ordinary people scramble for them. Many people even paid a huge price but still failed. They waited for many years but still couldn't get it, and experienced huge disappointment for nothing.
Instead of doing this, it would be better to set unavoidable restrictions at the earliest stage, such as for the disabled, the elderly who have participated in the War of Resistance Against Japan, people with serious illnesses, orphans and widows, etc. Once these conditions are set, the number of people who can apply for the newly built affordable housing will be limited, and at least a part of the people can be satisfied. Other normal people will also avoid the desire to compete and will not have too high expectations that will lead to big ups and downs in the future.

After thinking for a moment, MacLehose nodded and said, "This is indeed a good idea, but I'm afraid it can't be done."

"I'm just making a suggestion. Mr. Governor must have other considerations." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

In fact, he probably guessed that as the newly appointed Governor of Hong Kong, he needed to announce some major plans to enhance his political achievements. Whether they were true or false, they had to be said out loud. Some large-scale policies were needed both internally and externally, towards the people of Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

"Well, let me think about it. Maybe there are some compromise solutions." MacLehose paused and asked, "Then I wonder what Mr. Yang's second point is?"

Yang Wendong said: "The second point is that affordable housing cannot be built very well to a large extent. Safety must be guaranteed, but comfort must be a little worse. Only in this way can these houses be allocated to those who need them."

"Are you worried that some people will use their power to snatch up public housing?" Naturally, Murray MacLehose was a smart man, and he immediately understood the meaning behind what Yang Wendong said.

Yang Wendong smiled and said, “Yes, there is a story in ancient Chinese civilization. There was a disaster in a place, and many people had nothing to eat. The imperial government distributed food to help the victims.
But one official deliberately put a lot of sand in the rice porridge and fed it to the victims. Mr. Governor, why do you think this happened? "

MacLehose thought for a moment and said, "Is this to prevent some people who are not hungry from eating porridge?"

"Yes, that's about it, or they deliberately reduced the number of porridge distribution points to make the queues last a long time." Yang Wendong continued: "During the drought in 63, the water distribution points at that time also did this to prevent many people from getting water repeatedly;
A little bit of water and food will attract so many people to scramble for it, and this is even more true for affordable housing. After all, it is a house, and getting it is a huge fortune."

MacLehose said: "But affordable housing is not allowed to be sold in any country."

"Can we rent it out even if we are not allowed to sell it? There are many ways to cash out the cash." Yang Wendong said: "Even if the Hong Kong government restricts renting, the cost of verifying everything is too high, and how can the person who verifies it guarantee that there will be no problems?
Therefore, the best way is to lower the value of affordable housing and appropriately increase the penalty cost, so that those who are able to afford it will find it uneconomical to participate in such activities. Only in this way can the interests of the group that needs housing the most be truly guaranteed.”

Human nature is greedy. In the past, some people on the Internet drove Mercedes-Benz and BMW to apply for public housing and receive poverty funds. I guess these are just a small number of the exposed ones.
No matter what policy is, there may be loopholes. We can only say that we should try to avoid them.

MacLehose thought for a moment and said, "What Mr. Yang said makes sense. I will seriously consider it."

"Okay." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "In fact, if the conditions are worse, then with the same budget, we can build more affordable housing. If we think about it this way, the benefits will be greater."

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)