THIS PROFESSOR IS NUTS......

according to professor Eddie we shall all not complain about the crazy Hong Kong housing prices as there are enough options like public housing or HOS scheme - eeehh sorry professor: Where are you living (def not in Kwung Tong public housing estate or Sham Shui Po cage appartment) - and in what world are you living ? Also professor Eddie not every family of four or five wants to live in a 568 sqf appartment with 2 bedrooms and the whole space is like a bigger shoe-box - means around 40 sqm maximum - I really hate these kind of comments from so-called experts.
And then Eddie suggests to better analyze what "proportion of household income is spent on housing". Okay - do the math Mr Eddie - so families earning HKD 20,000 a month spent how much on housing ? I am waiting your analyzing - but it still will not change the fact that even for the cage homes the rents are almost the most expensive ones in whole Hong Kong.
Have a good day Professor Eddie !
Here is the article copied form THE STANDARD today:
HK top of housing tree
Tony Liaw andEllen Wang
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Homes in Hong Kong cost more than 11 times average salaries, making them the least affordable among major global cities.
That makes buying a home here "severely unaffordable," said the 7th Annual International Housing Affordability Survey by US-based Demographia.

Meanwhile, prices are set to soar more than 30 percent in the next two years, UBS warned.

The Demographia survey tracked home prices and household income in 325 urban markets in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Britain and the United States.

The median home price in Hong Kong was HK$2.58 million in the third quarter of 2010 - 11.4 times the median household annual income of HK$225,400. Sydney followed with a multiple of 9.6 and Vancouver with 9.

But local experts dispute the findings. "The survey ignores the fact that there is affordable housing in Hong Kong, like public housing and the Home Ownership Scheme," said Eddie Hui Chi-man, a professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Hui said it would be more fair to compare affordability by analyzing exactly what proportion of household income is spent on housing.

A resident of Vancouver said the survey does not take taxation levels into consideration. "The disposable income is limited by heavy tax in Canada, making houses less affordable than in Hong Kong," said Brian Wong, who moved back to Vancouver from Hong Kong last year.

"The price for my apartment almost doubled to C$560,000 (HK$4.38 million) in the past two years, but salaries have not kept pace," added Wong, who makes C$52,000 a year before tax.

Home prices in Hong Kong soared 20 percent last year, backed by prolonged low interest rates, improving economy and more mainland buyers.

Local home prices, meanwhile, are expected to surge 33 percent in two years while inflation may peak at 7 percent this year, predicts Eric Wong Chun-ya at UBS. Rents will also increase 15 percent over the same period.

One of the major drivers for local home prices, Wong said, is surging inflation due to depreciation of the Hong Kong dollar. Inflation this year may go up to 7 percent, leading to a real interest rate of below minus 6 percent, which will drive demand in the property market and push up prices