〈Asian Post, December 22, 2018〉Hong Kong property is the most expensive in the world. It is not surprising, then, that the proportion of Hongkongers who rent their homes is rising. Census data shows that in 2006, 52.8 per cent of homes in the city were owned or mortgaged by the people living in them, while 43 per cent were occupied by tenants. By 2016, the percentage of homes that were owned by occupants had fallen to 48.5 per cent, while the percentage of properties that were occupied by tenants had increased to 46.8 per cent. David Vetter looks at the Hong Kong rental market and the rights that renters have.

What could a slowdown in the property market mean for rents?A drop in property prices is assumed to be good news for tenants - as rents are expected to fall too.

But Edina Wong, senior director of residential service at property consultant Savills Hong Kong, says a fall in home prices may not benefit tenants as much as hoped.

"Maybe there will be a softening of rents in the short term due to extra supply, but when people don't buy, they rent," Wong says. "So we're forecasting that the demand for rentals will still be there - if not higher."

As long as demand is high, rents are unlikely to come down. Can landlords keep raising rents?In practice, yes. Hong Kong has no rental controls, so landlords and tenants can renegotiate the terms of a tenancy agreement every time it is due to expire. Edina Wong reminds tenants to stay in touch with their landlord - especially when their tenancy agreement is ending. "The landlord can come to you on the last day of the tenancy to start a negotiation," she says.

Tenants should also pay particular attention to the responsibilities of their landlords.

"Unfortunately, tenancy in Hong Kong is very pro-landlord," Wong says. "If you read a tenancy agreement carefully, you'll notice it's very one-sided."

She gives the example of the upkeep of rental properties. In Hong Kong, while landlords areexpected to cover capital and structural costs - such as plumbing maintenance and electrical wiring - any minor repairs are generally thetenants' responsibility.

〈Asian Post, December 22, 2018〉A turning property market is bringing an end to Hong Kong's brief love affair with tiny homes as buyers realise they can now get much more space for the same money

Hong Kong's flirtation with micro flats is coming to an end as a falling property market persuades buyers they might be able to get something bigger and better than a shoebox for their money.

A product of the housing boom of the last four years, micro flats were specifically designed to be small, typically less than 200 sq ft, and were meant to appeal to the average buyer desperate to get a foot on the property ladder but priced out of anything with even a half-decent living space.

Of the 976 micro flats that were added to the market this year, 461 remain unsold as of this week, according to calculations by the Post based on figures from Dataelement, which monitors sales of new flats in the city.

"Micro flats were the story of a booming market, but now it is different," said Raymond Cheng, an analyst at CGS-CIMB Securities.

That story began in late 2014 when a shortage of homes combined with mortgage rates that had not changed for a decade had caused home prices to spiral.

It became common for a dozen buyers to submit bids for every new home on sale. That gave developers a reason to raise prices, sometimes by up to 14 per cent within weeks between the different phases of a development's launch.

With surging prices putting more homes beyond the reach of first-time buyers, the smallest units, the only ones within many buyers' budgets, became popular.

Sensing a trend and an opportunity for a quick profit, developers began building ever-smaller homes and turning Hong Kong's already legendary small living spaces into the minuscule.

〈China Daily, December 21, 2018〉Global markets may have reacted badly after the US Federal Reserve's latest rate rise, but Hong Kong and the mainland can take moderate comfort. As expected, the Fed raised borrowing costs for the fourth time this year by 25 basis points to a range between 2.25 per cent to 2.5 per cent. While the move had been well-advertised, leading stock markets around the world duly plunged, including the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong. Investors were less concerned about the rise itself than the changing pace of rate increases - from three quarter-point rises to two - being hinted at by the Fed next year. It is apparently still not moderate enough for many.

Previous investor exuberance has given way to caution and even pessimism, so the Fed's signal of treading carefully in the face of the US-China trade war and Brexit has become another piece of bad news to the ongoing market correction into bear territory. The flattening yield curve, when the yield of benchmark longer-term Fed rates approaches that of shorter-dated rates, has also been taken as a sign of economic headwinds ahead for the US economy.

In Hong Kong, though, thanks to ample liquidity, most banks are not raising their lending rates. This is despite the same rise of 25 basis points by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in lockstep with the Fed on the basis of the US dollar peg. Mortgage rates will remain low, and may rise slower than expected next year. This will come as a relief to homeowners, but given the softening sentiment, the cooling-off in the property market is likely to continue.

〈The Standard, December 21, 2018〉The Hong Kong Monetary Authority warned of increasing downside risks to the economy from uncertainty over the Sino-US trade dispute, urging residents to be prepared for possible market volatility after expected US interest rate hikes.

The authority yesterday boosted the base rate charged through its overnight discount window by 25 basis points - hours after the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point.

But the city's largest banks - HSBC, Bank of China (Hong Kong) and Standard Chartered Bank - all left their best lending rate unchanged at 5.125 percent for the first two and 5.375 percent for StanChart.

HSBC had taken the lead to raise its prime rate by 0.125 percentage point on September 28 following the US Fed lead at that time.

"From a monetary policy perspective, banks should probably hike with the Fed. If you hike next year when the Fed is not hiking, the shock to the market could be greater," said Ken Cheung, Asian FX strategist at Mizuho Bank in Hong Kong.

"But in Hong Kong, commercial banks are in charge of prime rates. It's a commercial decision."

HKMA chief Norman Chan Tak-lam said rising interest rates reflect a normalization from a low rate environment.

"The current economic and financial conditions are still full of uncertainties with increasing downside risks," he said. Hong Kong's policy moves in lock-step with that of the United States because its currency is pegged to the greenback.

〈China Daily, December 19, 2018〉Hong Kong's public housing supply will be ramped up to account for 70 per cent of the target for the next decade,the government announced yesterday in a major policy change to provide more affordable homes.

The move is a departure from a policy adopted in 2014, where public rental housing and subsidised flats accounted for 60 per cent of the total housing supply target, while the remaining 40 per cent would be private flats.

The change means the government would set aside fewer plots for sale to private developers and keep more land to build public housing.

Lawmakers and housing experts welcomed the move to allocate more of the supply target for public housing, but expressed worries that, without increasing land supply, the government's pledge would end up an empty promise. Market watchers also expressed concern that the policy would slow down the cooling of an overheated property market.

Secretary for Transport and Housing Frank Chan Fan, who is in charge of reviewing and updating a rolling 10-year housing strategy every year, said the move was made to reflect new housing demand projections and changes in public opinion.

"We're talking about almost 270,000 applicants who are waiting for public housing so making this adjustment to increase the ratio of public housing is in response to the society's demands," Chan said.