Hong Kong's throngs of thousands defy bid to cool housing market

(May 29): Snaking queues of thousands of prospective apartment buyers in Hong Kong signaled authorities have made no progress in cooling a red-hot property market, where prices are at records.

People were lining up on Friday and over the weekend at Victoria Skye, a luxury project at the former airport site of Kai Tak, and at the Ocean Pride development by Cheung Kong Property Holdings and MTR Corp.

“Successive moves by the government in recent memory to cool the property market only resulted in it becoming crazier,” The Standard newspaper said in an editorial on Monday. “The result is a sea of madness.”

---

Related Stories

• India overtakes Hong Kong as world's fourth-largest stock market
• Looking beyond China's year of 'dashed hopes'
• Hong Kong's small brokers push for new rules to revive IPOs

---