【明報專訊】The public's difficulty in buying their own homes is a sore point in Hong Kong society. Chief Executive (CE) candidate John Lee said that the process of land creation for housing development has to be sped up and conducted on a bigger scale. Stabilising property prices will be one of his policy goals. Although stabilising housing prices has been a target emphasised by the last two governments, property prices have kept rising. It is likely that the number of first-hand private housing to be completed in the next couple of years will be even lower than that a few years ago. The stabilisation of property prices is easier said than done. It is a task that will test the determination and the execution capability of the next government. However, when talking about "stabilising" home prices, what the real estate industry has in mind is to allow the prices to increase by several percentage points every year, a pace that the salary increases of ordinary citizens will never be able to catch up with. In the long run, the divide between home-owners and non-home-owners will become an insurmountable chasm between the rich and the poor. The meaning of stabilising property prices should be preventing the dramatic fluctuation of property prices rather than guaranteeing a steady increase. Housing prices in Hong Kong have far exceeded the level that ordinary people can afford. Those running the city must deal with this problem, or wealth disparity and other social conflicts will only intensify.