Illegal Construction

Food, Shelter and Clothing. That is the basic of human needs.

Hong Kong government has it horribly wrong. The Shelter bit that is.


Hong Kong is a properties mogul haven. It is a Banker’s heaven; it is a heaven for business people. It is a heaven for a lot of people as long as your bank balance is tipped in your favor.


The USD Peg to float business. The USD went south, we went south with it. Every regional currency from the early 2000 went up and we stayed stagnant. AU$, NZ$, Sing $ and all hit the roof, we had the Thai Baht to keep us company. Lo behold, amazing Euro crisis came along and there seems to be a balance……yet no thank you, we will keep our peg. We lack imagination, foresight, drive, creativity, etc. Yet we used to make money before Y2K. Yet since then we have our winds knocked our of our sails. Around mid 2000 HK population nominated Lee Kashing as the most creative person in HK. Alas it seems that is the case as only he seems to be getting richer and richer and not one of our bureaucrats have been able to put us in a right path. Thankfully we are pegged to China. Surely they will bail us out again and again? How wonderful to be a region that does not need to be administered, only special.


The need to keep the price of property up is such a problem that is now out of bounds. The government has no handle on it. When SARS happened it was a windfall. People could afford houses. There was a god after all. But the god’s smiles more strongly for those who have the right connections. Alas our properties went through the roof, thanks no small part to the RMB. It is indeed ironic that we are pegged to the dollar, that dollar wants itself to be lower in value to the RMB. Soon every millionaire in China should be able to afford a house in HK. The last I checked, there was more than 1 million US$ millionaires in China. Double it, triple it and then some. We do need to sell more houses in HK. Forget bringing price down; let us keep it going up!


At the same time our building codes and rules of the land are one of the most onerous on the face of the earth. The government is reluctant to even give the resident a free foot if they can help. The only one that can get freebies seems to be the rich properties moguls. A 500 Sq Ft flat can suffice for a family of 4. A 1000 Sq Ft is unthinkable. The chance that an average HK person can afford quality and decent size (Think 1000 Sq Ft – ala Singapore) is pegged to an iron ball, which has been pushed into the Marianna trench. My final gripe is the recent illegal construction business. I will come out and state that Henry Tang and his complete basement is far from illegal, it is downright a crime. However most of the other half people in HK who have extended their 500 sq ft flat to cover the balcony and add one more bed space; a family that has added a canopy to shade their outdoor washings, another who has gained another 10 sq ft. within their land, etc are housing dynamics, not illegal or punishable crime. That is people making do with what they have. Even if you are fairly well off, changing your 1000 sq. ft flat to a 1200sq ft flat is something that requires robbing a bank, especially in this USD pegged times. So the present frenzy of the anti-illegal construction clime is as blatantly stupid as it can be. Perhaps not as stupid if this is generated by the property industry, what ever their goal may be? This looks like the Fukushima catastrophy still gaining momentum. What gives?

has anybody made it beyond the second paragraph....i could not find anything related to the subject, so i gave up