How to Slow Soaring Home Prices: Hong Kong and Singapore's Success

Look at the world’s dizzying jumps in the price of housing in the 12 months through June: London, up 16.4 percent; Manhattan, 18 percent; Sydney, 15.4 percent. Then there are Singapore and Hong Kong: down 3.7 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

To officials in the two Asian cities, those are winning numbers. Prompted by concerns over potential property bubbles and affordability for the middle class, their governments have imposed mortgage restrictions, taxes on property flippers, and levies on foreign buyers. “Hong Kong has successfully cooled down the market in terms of transactions and turnover,” says Raymond Yeung, senior economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) in Hong Kong. “Singapore has been more effective.”