Developers Association believes members can comply with new curbs

The government plans to introduce two more measures, in addition to the nine announced in April 2010, to enhance property market transparency. The aim is to curtail speculative activities and undesirable marketing practices in the primary property market.

Leung Chi Kin, vice-chairman of the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong, confirmed Tuesday that the government had sent letters to the association last week to inform them of its plan to introduce the two additional measures.

One of the two newest measures requires developers to make public all details concerning a transaction. This includes the buyer's identity and transaction date. Developers must also declare the transaction's exact date of completion within five days of signing a sales contract with a buyer. The other measure requires developers to disclose the cancellation of any transaction on their company website as soon as possible.

"The members of the association will discuss these two new measures in the next couple of days, and we believe developers can comply with these two measures without great difficulty," Leung said, adding that the government has not exerted pressure to force developers to comply with these two new measures. "Developers will try their best to comply with new measures as long as they are executable," Leung emphasized.

In late April, when the government introduced nine measures to enhance transparency, it did so to restrain undesirable marketing practices and prevent speculative activities and manipulation in the primary residential market. The official move came when many feared an oncoming property market bubble, as home prices surged by about 30 percent in 2009.

As for how the nine April measures are applied in current sales, Leung admits that developers have had some technical difficulties, which they hope to soon solve. In the case of pre-sales - and how developers must implement the same measures in their process - Leung says they have not mentioned any such difficulties.

Leung reiterated that local developers are willing to follow the measures to increase market transparency, and that the Association understands that people consider the possibility of buying a home a serious matter.

Cheng Kar Shun, managing director of New World Development, stated that the company will comply with the two new measures to protect customer rights. He added that New World will report any arising technical difficulties to the government. Cheng spoke after the company's general meeting on Tuesday.

In terms of the nine measures announced in April, Cheng said that it will take market experts some time to assess their effectiveness, particularly as developers present more projects for sale.

Cheng predicts that local property prices will continue on an upward trend until about 2013 since market players cannot immediately fix the problem of shortage in flat supply.

Cheng also said that New World does not plan to proactively trigger a land auction, even though officials have lowered the threshold for triggering a land auction under the Lands Department's Application List System.

Nonetheless, Cheng revealed that New World is interested in bidding for a plot at Mount Nicholson Road (Mid-levels), which will be auctioned off next week.

China Daily

(HK Edition 07/21/2010 page3)