Chapter 922 Take Action!

Entering July, I don’t know why, but some of the government’s tone began to change.

No matter who asked before, the government did not respond much to the land and real estate market in Xiangjiang.

But now, every government official has begun to speak.

"I think the housing prices in Xiangjiang have risen a bit too fast recently. If you look at it in the long run, it may not be very good." - An official from the Department of Home Affairs.

"The land market? Well, it's a bit chaotic now. We need to discuss in detail how to rectify it." - The third boss of the Chief Secretary.

"Governor MacLehose is very concerned about the current living environment in Hong Kong and will not rule out taking some measures to suppress the increasingly rampant wave of real estate speculation." - A close friend of the Governor's Office.

"..."

With the emergence of these remarks, there was not much movement in the land market in Xiangjiang, but immediately, the opening price of a real estate project of Chinachem Group was reduced by 50 yuan per square foot.

This is an unprecedented price reduction since last year!

In the past, people were raising prices, and the higher they went up, the more they bought.

What now?

Chinachem has reduced prices. For a 300-square-foot house, you can save 15,000 yuan, which is more than half a year's salary!

But the strange thing is that Chinachem actually lowered the price. When this property was launched, there were only inquiries and not even a single transaction.

No, it’s not just Chinachem.

All the properties that have been launched in recent days have not been purchased.

No one has continued to purchase the remaining properties for sale.

This made real estate businessmen in Xiangjiang panic.

Is the government really going to strike with thunder?

How can it be! ?

They don't rely on selling land or collecting taxes on real estate. What other major sources of income do they have?

But at this time, no one dared to continue to lower prices.

If an avalanche were triggered, everything would probably be ruined.

The most correct decision is to hold on for a while and see what the situation is.

At this time of panic, the Chief Secretary of the Hong Kong Government officially issued a decree.

"From now on, the Finance Department will strictly review the accounts of major financial companies and resolutely crack down on illegal lending and illegal lending activities. We hope that all financial companies will be prepared and take the upcoming inspections actively and seriously."

Damn it! !

When this policy came out, it immediately caused more people to worry.

Before 1978, it was very difficult to obtain a banking license in Xiangjiang. Therefore, before that, many banks entered Xiangjiang in the form of "finance companies" to carry out some loan and deposit business.

Then after the bank license was opened, they continued to use the financial company method they were accustomed to to conduct deposit and loan business.

These can be called regular armies.

There are also some less formal ones, namely those private financial companies in Xiangjiang, or those established by societies.

In the Hong Kong movies of the 1980s and 1990s, those people were in debt and owed high-interest loans. Basically, they owed debts to these financial companies.

Other associations have also gone through the formalities, and the financial companies are authentic, but if your mortgage conditions are not up to standard, then they will not follow the formal path, and it will be a high-interest loan.

How many financial companies are there in Xiangjiang?

As of July 1981, there are a total of 533 large and small businesses.

Yes.

You read that right.

In such a small city, there are actually 533 financial companies!

Basically, there are an average of 5.33 financial companies for 10,000 people. Isn’t it amazing?

However, more than 400 of these 533 companies were established after 1978, and more than 300 companies were established last year.

This also shows how prosperous the real estate industry in Xiangjiang is and how many various loans there are.

Ordinary people usually seek loans from finance companies if their conditions do not meet the bank's requirements.

Although the interest rate of the finance company will be slightly higher, even if it is a society, as long as you have enough collateral and have a normal job, then they will follow the formal procedures and will not deceive you. ——There are also rules for fishing for deviation. Since you have entered this industry, as long as it is a legitimate loan, you cannot bring over all the bad habits of the society, otherwise all financial companies will boycott this rat. Shit.

The problem now is, of course, not that there is a problem with the financial companies of these societies, but that there is a problem with the real estate lending in Hong Kong as a whole.

Seeing that countless people have taken out loans for 20 or even 30 years and put all their savings in real estate, which is not even enough for daily living expenses, the Xiangjiang government will naturally not sit idly by.

If this continues, something will definitely go wrong.

And there will be big problems!

Therefore, in fact, as early as June, after two consecutive big sales occurred, the Xiangjiang government began to hold closed-door meetings to secretly discuss how to curb the current crazy rise in real estate.

It is definitely not possible if real estate does not rise, but with the current huge, skyrocketing, and uncontrolled price increases, once the public cannot bear such strong pressure, it is likely to affect the order of the entire Hong Kong.

But you can't just beat him to death with a stick, for example, directly declare that loans are not allowed to buy houses... In this way, the real estate market will completely collapse, and the only one to clean up the mess is the Xiangjiang government itself.

They discussed this for more than half a month and finally came up with a feasible solution.

Today's rectification of financial companies, large and small, is only the first step in the entire plan.

The first step is to shake things up, and once the financial companies are cleaned up, if those large and medium-sized banks are still not interested, the Xiangjiang government will immediately announce the second step.

If the second step does not work, then there will be a third and fourth step... which will become more and more strict until all real estate developers and banks give in.

The Xiangjiang government has not regulated the real estate market for a long time.

Now that the move is underway, financial companies are panicking, but ordinary people are even more panicked.

When a finance company lends money to private individuals, the interest rate will be much higher than that of a bank.

Similarly, if they accept deposits, the interest rates will be much higher than those of banks.

Therefore, many citizens in Xiangjiang deposit their savings in financial companies.

Of course, they dare not give it to small financial companies, but those large and medium-sized financial companies with banking backgrounds are their favorite places to save money.

Now when I hear that the government says that these financial companies are not standardized and that they are going to be thoroughly investigated, ordinary people think, I have to get my money back quickly, otherwise what if it is not insured and swallowed by them?

Especially those users who have deposits with only three months, half a year, or one year terms, they don’t even think about it. They would rather withdraw their money without interest.

At one time, more than 300,000 people in Xiangjiang went to various financial companies to withdraw their money.

Now the finance company is on the verge of tears.

Even banks are in danger of bankruptcy if they encounter a run, let alone financial companies like them.

If they weren't relatively formal, the list of short-term deposits alone would be enough for them to drink a pot.

But even so, they had to go through their parent company outside Xiangjiang and urgently transfer a sum of money to get through.

Why?

Because they did not put these deposits in the account!

They all lent out these deposits, or made various stocks, investments, etc.

Financial companies all know that letting money sit in accounts is an unforgivable waste, and they will certainly not make such a mistake.

And investing a large amount of money in this way will inevitably lead to insufficient reserves. Once a run occurs, it is very dangerous.

Financial companies are now facing such huge risks. The money in their accounts is simply not enough for deposit users to withdraw!

Therefore, if it were not for the full support of the parent company, I am afraid that some of them would go bankrupt.

Under such circumstances, how can they dare to lend again?

If you continue to lend money, it will really collapse!

If it collapses, all the money will be wasted.

Therefore, not only did these financial companies dare not continue to lend, but they immediately urged those who had already taken loans and were about to repay them.

Even large and medium-sized financial companies did not dare to lend, and small financial companies immediately became vigilant and quickly set aside some money to cover the situation in case of trouble.

Therefore, no matter whether they were loans under review or loans that had been reviewed and approved, all of them were stopped in the past few days, and no loans were given at all.

If customers are pushed into a hurry, they would rather lose a little money than reject the loan business.

Between the choice of survival or making money, they can only choose one, and any idiot knows which one to choose.

Okay.

The Finance Department had already frightened the people and the finance company before they even started the inspection. The real estate developers in Xiangjiang suddenly felt something bad in their hearts.

Their feeling is actually right.

Just three days later, HSBC, the largest bank in Hong Kong and one of the note-issuing banks, issued an external announcement.

"From now on, the bank will conduct more stringent qualification reviews of real estate loan customers. This includes but is not limited to reviewing whether the mortgaged building meets the value, the lender's repayment ability, etc."

Even HSBC did this, and soon Standard Chartered Bank, Hang Seng Bank, etc. also issued statements, all of which were strictly related to loan control.

These banks are not financial companies! The ordinances issued by the Chief Secretary did not include them at all.

But they responded immediately, which shows that they attach great importance to the signals given by the government.

At the same time, the banking sector is sending a signal to the government.

You see, I'm very obedient, right?

So you don’t need to issue laws against us, we can just do it ourselves!

Please don't upgrade again. Although our family has a big business, we can't afford your trouble!