Monday News Bites

National security police arrested Wong this morning

 

Monday morning and more arrests today -- three students of an opposition group called Student Politicism who national security police allege the trio conspired to incite subversion against state power.

Officers carted off books, masks and chocolates

The group is also known for holding fundraisers to buy basic necessities for prisoners, such as surgical masks, sanitizers, snacks and books.

After the trio were arrested, officers broke into the warehouse where Student Politicism store their supplies and these were carted away as evidence.

These students, ranging in age from 18 to 20 years old, and were doing something similar to Wall-fare, in providing sanctioned supplies to inmates. They have been in trouble with the law before and arrested a few times.

One of them, Wong Yat-chin, 20, convenor of Student Politicism, previously said in an interview the value of the group was "to test the red line of the authorities".

They definitely touched the red line today.

How long does it take to count 4,380 ballots?

Media that are not pro-Beijing remarked this morning how it could be possible to take almost 14 hours to count 4,380 votes in yesterday's election for the Election Committee.

Despite the lengthy delay, Beijing's liaison office hailed the exercise as marking a "major step in Hong Kong's democratic movement with its own characteristics".

Definitely, when only 0.06 percent of the population is involved. 

Tung is the owner of a flat at Grenville House

 

Finally a news item from last week -- former Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa is a first-time homeowner at the age of 84. Guess there's always a first time for everything.

Unlike most people who have to scrimp and save or hope parents will pitch in for the down payment for a microflat, Tung shelled out HK$160 million (US$20.6 million) for a luxury flat at Grenville House in Mid-Levels.

As Tung paid for it himself, he was subjected to a stamp duty of 4.25 percent, or HK$6.8 million.

Tung is a first-time homeowner at 84 years old

"Tung bought the C2 unit of Grenville House in August this year. The government had rented the same unit during his stint as chief executive," his spokesperson said. 

"After resigning as chief executive, he continued to rent the unit for his own use. He learnt in recent months that the vendor had intentions to sell his property, leading to his decision to purchase the unit at Grenville House."

He had been renting the 3,335 sq ft flat for more than a decade, and it comes with a car park.

It's just really baffling that Tung has never bought a home in Hong Kong before until now.

And by the way the vendor is laughing all the way to the bank. It bought the property for HK$3.9 million in 1982.

Replenishing HK's War Chest During Covid

Carrie Lam modeling the Cu+ Mask that never took off in popularity...

It's hard to believe it's already September and no end in sight for the pandemic. Hong Kong's third wave seems to be under control, though the number of new cases continues to rise and fall. There were 12 today, though seven were imported.

During the past eight months, the government has doled out a lot of money, and luckily the city had saved a war chest full -- over a trillion Hong Kong dollars, though it is fast being depleted after giving every resident HK$10,000, wage subsidies of HK$9,000 per employee if employers took part in a scheme promising not to lay off staff, handing out money to every sector pleading for handouts, from tourism and restaurants, to gyms, education, transport, and beauty parlours to name a few.

Taxpayer money was used to buy full-page ads in newspapers

Oh and remember the government made and sent out Cu+ masks to every resident who applied for it too? It also sent out surgical masks, but they turned out to be faulty... and all those front page ads in many newspapers about the universal testing scheme...

Now lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun is calling on the government to dole out more money again, proposing that every resident be given another HK$10,000 to help them another few months, and help refill the war chest by imposing more taxes, such as on capital gains, luxury and dividends.

"I say this is the best time now to really start this discussion about introducing new taxes into our current very narrow structure, Tien said.

"Simply because we have depleted our reserve by almost half in the last six months, and God knows how much more the government needs to dole out before everything returns to normal."

Tien calling for the government to find new revenue streams

It's interesting Tien is calling for this, as the government has not budged on this issue, as from time immemorial it has depended on taxes from land sales for the vast majority of its revenue.

But he advises the authorities "not to pray that our land sales will come back".

Tien is right. Not only is the property market very soft, prices have dropped and so the amount of money the government is expecting to pull in from stamp duties will be much lower.

One wonders if the government will take Tien's advice and finally tax the rich further, but in the meantime the authorities are hitting up ordinary folk for money in the guise of fines.

Last week my hairdresser told me of her friends being fined by the police for not wearing masks outside, when they were just in the alley having a smoke. Talk about an expensive smoke, not just for your health but your wallet too.

Police out in force, giving out fines for not social distancing

The police have also fined people at protests for not social distancing, from HK$2,000 to up to HK$25,000, and many traffic wardens are being more diligent about giving out parking tickets.

This nickel-and-diming people is more of an opportunity for the police to flex their authority or perhaps they have a quota of fines they have to give out each month.

But these fines are a drop in the ocean compared to the zillions of dollars given out by the government.

Most people have had salary cuts, or been furloughed, so making them pay fines is not very productive.

It's time the government find other revenue generators -- much like the rest of us trying to survive.

Ultra Wealthy Snap Up Flats

An average of 17 buyers fought over one flat -- a shoe box in the sky

There are still lots of people in Hong Kong who have gobs of money to spend.

This past weekend Nan Fung Development sold 460 units out of 487 at its LP6 Project in Lohas Park. A total of 8,145 people registered for the sale, which meant an average of 17 buyers fighting over one unit.

Of course the ones with the fattest wallets won.

Ultra-wealthy buyers snapped up multiple flats

The square footage ranged from 307 sq ft for one bedroom to 971 sq ft for three bedrooms, and prices were listed from HK$4.492 million to HK$13.241 million (US$572,252 to US$1.69 million).

But demand raised prices further.

"A handful of buyers wanted to buy four flats for more than HK$28 million each," said Louis Chan, Asia-Pacific vice-chairman and chief executive of the residential division at Centaline Property Agency. "Investors can lease one-bedroom flats at Lohas Park for more than HK$9,000 a month, at a return of about 3 percent."

Wait a second -- more than one buyer wanted to buy four flats, which meant they each paid HK$28 million?

Where did that money come from? I'm obviously not earning enough to play this high-stakes game.

A showroom flat giving a sophisticated atmosphere

Property agents reported a mainland Chinese buyer paid HK$35 million for three of the three-bedroom units, and a single-bedroom studio for investment, and on top of that paid HK$10.5 million in stamp duty, so his total bill was HK$45.5 million.

No wonder Hong Kong tops New York in terms of the number of ultra-wealthy people at just over 10,000 compared to 8,865 in the Big Apple.

The definition of ultra-wealthy -- individuals who are worth at least US$30 million.

The rest of us feel ultra poor...