Property Market in Hong Kong

According to Mr. Shih, he found it no surprise that the property market value had always been rising in Hong Kong, which indeed was an indicator of major financial cities like London and New York in the world.  The market price was driven by local and overseas investors, both believing that investing in the property market was a way to leverage their capital with good investment returns.  According to Mr. Shih, the property market was now under adjustment but the pricing would be upward in the long run. 

Responding to the unaffordable housing pricing for young people and grassroots, Mr. Shih proposed that the government could segregate the first-hand buyer market from the free market.  However one should never intervene in the market as the essence of Hong Kong's economy was always to be self-regulated by sellers and buyers without government intervention.

He also urged the government to increase the land supply by converting land usage and developing the agricultural land, which should be far more effective in stabilizing the property pricing.

Hong Kong Economy Forecast

Although the city’s economy was now sluggish and slipped into a possible recession, Mr. Shih opined that both China and the U.S would not jeopardize Hong Kong’s status.  Hong Kong remained crucially important to both countries, it would be inconceivable for them to lose such political and economic control.

Mr. Shih remained optimistic about Hong Kong's future economy, though the recent civil unrest definitely brought a negative impact on the local property market and seriously hit the retail, F&B, hotel and tourism industries.  However, he observed that the violent protests should be unsustainable in the coming weeks since the violence and destruction accompanied the protests were totally meaningless and disastrous, without winning the majority support of those peaceful protestors.  Mr. Shih pointed out that it took a while for Hong Kong to be fully recovered from the last Umbrella Movement and it would just take a bit longer for the city to resume back to normal given the scale of this time.    The market would start to pick up and he foresaw that around Christmas time the social unrest would come to a halt.

Mr. Shih even proposed a very innovative solution to the recent anxiety of Hong Kong people towards the unforeseeable future, i.e. to extend the "One Country, Two Systems" in Hong Kong for another 50 years, ensuring that Hong Kong could enjoy the autonomy for the coming decades.

Laozi's Philosophy

Mr. Shih is an advocate of Laozi's philosophy "not doing anything" and he has always adopted this philosophy in managing Centaline in the past 40 years.  He strongly believed that employees could outperform with a more motivated working attitude and a strong sense of responsibility under this non-intervening leadership style.

Q & A session

Mr. Shih’s insightful speech sparked a lively and engaging half-hour-long Q&A session with Mr. Vincent To as the moderator. Questions relating to a wide range of topics including the residential and commercial property market, the Greater Bay Area, Lantau Tomorrow Vision and even the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act were raised to Mr. Shih. The interactive dialogue gave way to an animated exchange of views and thought-provoking ideas.