Hong Kong Monetary Authority limits luxury mortgages to prevent bubble

Jonathan Cheng:

Concerns about a growing bubble in Hong Kong's high-end property market pushed central bankers here to increase the required down payment on luxury homes to 40%, from the current 30%.

The new measure, which goes into effect immediately, applies to properties valued at HK$20 million (US$2.6 million) or more, part of an attempt to tamp down an overheated sector that has alarmed regulators and set off a wave of populist anger.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city's de facto central bank and main banking regulator, said that luxury-home prices already had exceeded Hong Kong's historical peak in prices, in 1997.

While property prices in much of the rest of the world continue to languish, prices in traditionally volatile Hong Kong have been on a tear this year, thanks in large part to low interest rates and a wave of liquidity from mainland China, where Beijing last year unleashed a four trillion-yuan (US$585.6 billion) stimulus. Economists attribute much of Hong Kong's property run-up to mainland Chinese, and developers say that mainland Chinese customers now account for as much as 40% of new-home sales.