Burma - Article from Citizen Journalist

Due to the media restrictions and strict government policies in Myanmar, we have been unable to find any comments about the housing situations in Myanmar from the citizen journalism's point of view.

Taiwan - Article from Citizen Journalist

The price now didn’t match the reality 

Monday, 5 April 2010
by the professor of NCCU張金鶚

The housing price is so high now, due to the “false demand” instead of truly lack of house supply.

These days the house price in Taipei still keep going much more higher, some employee of real estate industry said the way to solve this problem is to improve the public transportation between the suburbs and downtown and increase the house supply in the remote areas. The reason for lacking of houses in Taipei isn’t caused by the supply less than demand, instead of that, there are many houses in Taipei which are out of use. Investors don’t want to sell the house to people who really need to use it if the price is less than the bought price. In addition to the investors, some people afraid that they can’t afford the increasing price, so they urged to buy those houses that are affordable to them. These two reasons make the house price keep rising up.

In the view of economics, the meaning of demand is the one who willing and enable to purchase. Those investors can afford the price but they don’t need live in it; those people who want to live in the house can’t afford the price. This kind of false demand maintains the price in the high level nowadays.

The manager of government about the living area said, because the business cycle just recovered from the recession in the past few years, it’s not the right time to stop the increasing house price. But the price now is too high for those people who really need the house to live in. The reason for not to stop the rising house price isn’t reasonable for experts, in their opinion, if the house price keep in this high level, the cost in house price will have negative influence to the budget they want to spend in other living areas. If the government keeps let the price going up, it will lead to a house bubble.

According to experts’ opinion, the government should try their best to make the price back to reasonable instead of increasing supply and stop let the investors raise the house price through improve the related tax policy.

Reference: http://snail-tw.blogspot.com/2010/04/blog-post_05.html

Hong Kong - Article from Citizen Journalist

Hong Kong property prices and sales soaring despite govt’s real estate cooling measures, figures show

by Ray Clancy on September 13, 2010

Residential property prices in Hong Kong have risen to their highest since December 1997, defying government efforts to rein in real estate speculation and prevent an asset bubble.

The latest index from Centaline Property Agency increased 1.11% to 84.54 in the week ended on September 05, from 83.61 a week earlier.

The report from Centaline, one of Hong Kong’s biggest property agencies, also shows that transactions of used apartments at 10 of Hong Kong’s biggest private developments fell for a second straight week.

The index has risen 1.2% in the three weeks since the measures were introduced in the middle of August after having risen about 13% since the beginning of the year. The figures are causing concern as economists and analysts repeatedly warn of the dangers of a real estate bubble.

The government has increased down payment ratios and accelerated the sale of land for development to rein in home prices that have now surged 45% since the beginning of 2009. Prices are now on par with 1997, the height of a previous bubble that was followed by a six-year slump that sent values more than 50% lower.

‘Any further measures may have only limited impact. Transactions have already declined a bit and price growth has slowed since the measures were introduced. The market has already slowly taken in those measures,’ said Adrian Ngan, an analyst at CCB International Securites in Hong Kong.

The government is closely monitoring the property market and may introduce further measures to contain prices if they continue to escalate. But experts in the industry are not expecting a sudden change. ‘Prices are going to stay around this level in the short term,’ said Centaline associate directors Wong Leung-sing.

Sales are also increasing but high prices are not putting off buyers. Hong Kong’s home sales rose 33% by value in August to the highest in almost three years as the number of transactions completed in the first half of the month outweighed the second-half’s decline, according to the latest figures from the Land Registry.

There seems to be no let up in demand. A 26 year-old government built apartment near one of Hong Kong’s busiest shopping areas sold in July for a record price per square foot. The 420 square foot home in the Sham Shui Po area of the Kowloon district was bought for HK$1.98 million ($255,000).

Prices have exceeded estimates in both land auctions held since the cooling measures were introduced. Kerry Properties, controlled by the family of Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok, paid 26% more than analysts estimated for land in the Kowloon Tong district last month. Cheung Kong, controlled by Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, paid more than estimated for a site in the nearby Ho Man Tin district four days after the government announced the curbs.

Reference: http://www.propertycommunity.com/property-in-china/697-hong-kong-property-prices-soaring-govts-real-estate.html

Pakistan - Article from Citizen Journalist

Slums in Lahore

Posted on October 19, 2011
Written By: Danish Mughal From Institute of Communication Studies, Punjab University Lahore

A dirty, unhygienic cluster of impoverished shanties with long lines of people crowding around a solitary municipal water tap, bowling babies literally left on street corners to fend for themselves; endless cries and voices emanating from various corners.

Most of them are engaged in eking out their daily lives, always below the poverty line, by working as construction labourers, domestic helpers, rag pickers and chhotus in neighbourhood colonies. In spite of poor conditions in slums, second generation residents who are not nostalgic about their rural background – feel that life in slum is reasonably tolerable and city life is probably better than rural life.

“Slums are the problems of failed policies, bad governance, corruption in appropriate regulations, dysfunctional land markets, unresponsive financial systems and fundamental lack of political will”.

Lahore the second largest city of Pakistan and is the economic hub of Punjab. According to the population survey, the population of this glorious and magnificent city is more than ten million. Out of this, more than half people are living in the slums, where they don’t have proper food, health, sanitation, living and education facilities, & it is turning out to be the biggest dilemma for our society. Moreover, it is thought provoking for our elected representatives especially for the chief Minister of Punjab Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif who is the constitutional head of the province.

I have personally visited to the slum area (Kachi Abbadi) of Youhana Abad (Christian community) located on Ferozpur Road towards Kasuar District on this weekend. I went to this area whose population is about one million as one of the sources told me. After my personal visit to this place, it came into my knowledge that this is the largest slum or Kachi Abbadi of Asia.

My visit has opened many windows of pain, ignorance, lack of health and education facilities, no proper sanitation as well as no proper infrastructure etc for them. “Our ancenstors born, lived, died while seeing all these conditions, me and my children will also see all this for our whole life”. A forty five years old Josephs Masih who has seven children said.

The people living in this area have only one complain. They complain that whenever the General Elections are announced, the representatives of different political parties always promise them that after winning the election they will address their all the problems but after their success they forget them and those poor people remain lives their lives on the same pattern without having the basic necessities.

On my visit I also observed that there is no water drinking facility for those people and they are forced to drink water from a pound situated just outside their settlements from where animals were also drinking the water.

I want to suggest the Government authorities that they should provide proper sanitation, health, food and education facilities to them with the help of NGO’s and also build cemented houses of two rooms for them so they can live properly.

The problems prevailing in the slums give us the challenge to rebuild a society that is more equitable where equal opportunities could be provided to all for living with dignity.

Singapore - Article from Citizen Journalist

TOC Blog Feature: Heart of the housing issue – cost of land

Posted by theonlinecitizen on April 17, 2011

To watch Minister Tharman say that Singaporeans have it good, homes are easily affordable….better than all other developed countries just add to the frustration of Singaporeans coping with the high cost of housing. I’m sure regular readers of this blog can pick out the flaws in Tharman’s argument easily but for those are having trouble figuring it out here is the explanation.

When Tharman talks about the relatively constant average quantum (23%) that 1st time buyers use to service loans, it counts only people who can afford a home – many can’t afford homes give up looking for one. Also, they keep the quantum constant by buying homes smaller than what they want or need at less desirable locations and the tenure for loans has increased – in the past people finish paying their loans in 10 years or less now the tenture can be as long as 3 decades….there is a big difference between paying 23% of your income for 10 years vs 30 years.

He then goes on to say we are better off  than Hong Kong which is no consolation given the housing misery there (unhappy Hong Kongers come out in force to protest every weekend for a good reason). He then goes on to make a very strange and really hard to believe assertion that the housing situation in Singapore is better than all other developed countries. Singapore has the 2nd highest population densities[Link] in the world and many cities in develop countries have suburban areas where housing is very cheap.

Singapore is the 11th most expensive city in the world but is 43th and 49th in domestic wages and purchasing power respectively, along the likes of developing countries like Turkey, Slovakia and Qatar and far below the capitals of other Asian Tigers – Seoul, Taipei and Hong Kong[UBS Report, Temasek Review on the report]. Singapore has the highest income in equality among developed countries which means that the lower rungs of our society are more adversely affected by high housing costs than else where in the world. Tharman’s denial that there is a problem with high housing costs shows that there is no interest in govt to solve what many Singaporeans think is serious problem.

The undisputable truth is housing is far less affordable that it was 20 years ago. The median income rose 111% (not inflation adjusted) while the price of housing as measured by the RPI rose 342%. That is the source of unhappiness among Singaporeans and it is a very real problem:

Reference: http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/04/toc-blog-feature-heart-of-the-housing-issue-cost-of-land/