HK targets mainland buyers

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's leader on Wednesday outlined new steps to cool the world's hottest property market, including halting automatic residency for rich buyers, in the face of simmering public anger over rising prices.

The residency measure will particularly hit wealthy investors from the mainland, whose buying spree of high-end apartments has stoked fears of a new bubble in the Hong Kong economy.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang said he was responding to public anxiety about a shortage of residential housing and rocketing prices during a rowdy session of the legislative assembly, in which one lawmaker stormed out of the chamber.