CENTRAL: Hong Kong has become the land that economic time forgot, where the outdated practices of monopoly-entrenched dinosaurs are defended by government officials. Dogmatic beliefs in a free market that are actually failed-and-rigged markets continue to tell the world that Hong Kong is an intellectually backward village, dominated by post-colonials with cosy back-room deals who cannot keep up with China’s economic and technological change.
Chan recently mounted a depressing defence of the city’s property developers, refusing to intervene in the private flat market where prices have not only continued to rise, but unregulated sizes continue to shrink to past the point of a parking space. According to a Post report, 691 micro flats – of 200 square feet or less – were offered in 2017, representing over eight times more than the 79 in 2015. Smaller flats between 215 and 430 sq ft jumped to 6,200 in 2017 from 2,056 in 2015.
