The Singapore and Hong Kong property markets: Lessons for the west from successful global cities

Why is Shanghai Building a Giant Speculative Property Bubble?

“…There are cases enough in the West to show the dangers of this kind of policy, as well as examples of a different type of land policy with better results: in Singapore, the Urban Redevelopment Authority has been careful in releasing land and has tried to regulate construction cycles. For example, in the middle of the 1980s a high vacancy rate led the government to intervene with comprehensive measures to control supply (by announcing that there would be no land sales in the next two years), to stimulate demand (by allowing people to invest their Central Provident Fund savings in non-residential property), to lower property taxes, and to postpone its own projects (see Zhu, 1997;Haila, 1999. )…”

Inward Investment, Firm Embeddedness and Place

“…The growth of industrial concentrations often puts pressure on both commercial and private property, tightens the labour market and creates congestion (DETR, 2000). In an examination of Singapore's commercial property market, Haila (1999) demonstrates how the negative externalities of economic growth inhibit further investment by raising costs and diminishing quality of life. While this has obvious implications for costdriven activities, quality of life issues influence significantly the attraction of knowledge workers in high-tech activities and advanced services (Sassen, 1991;Mugerauer, 2000, Yeung et al, 2001.…”

Real Estate in Global Cities: Singapore and Hong Kong as Property States

“…In the 1990s, the government introduced an anti-speculation programme. (Zhu, 1997;Haila, 1999). The government in Singapore is not only more interventionist in implementing anti-speculation programmes and in having a more extensive public housing sector than the government in Hong Kong, but it also has a more interventionist industrial land policy.…”