Promise of change needs delivering on

Hong Kong will have a change of government in less than four weeks. On July 1, 57-year-old Leung Chun-ying will take over from Donald Tsang Yam-kuen as the chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Leung emerged victorious in March, after a bitterly contested election. His victory is owed in no small measure to his campaign promise to bring change to the city of 7 million people, many of whom have grown increasingly displeased with the current governance philosophy of "big market, small government".

Nowhere are the effects of that wild exuberance for the free, virtually unregulated market more in evidence than in the escalating price of housing; one of the nagging issues that has fueled public discontent. The rising price of housing is making life very difficult for the city's residents. Hong Kong's average house price now stands at HK$3.15 million ($405,899), which is 12.60 times the average annual household income. Markets in which the average house price is 5.1 times the average household income are considered unaffordable.