housing bubble又中又英

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What goes up must come down. This proverb refers to gravity, which means the force that makes things fall to the ground. If you throw a stone into the air, it will fall back down. But the expression “what goes up must come down” can also be used to describe situations that have nothing to do with gravity. Whenever stock markets rise for a long time, experts always warn that what goes up must come down. This means stock markets cannot rise forever. Sooner or later they will plummet (fall fast, nosedive). If your friend always wins at gambling, you can say: “What goes up must come down”. This means your friend cannot win forever.

　　Hong Kong’s property prices have been going up for many years. We have the world’s most expensive property market. My overseas friends were dumbstruck when I told them a parking space was sold for $6 million recently. If you are dumbstruck, it means you are so shocked you become speechless (cannot speak). I’ve told myself for years that Hong Kong’s property prices cannot go up forever. What goes up must come down. But I’ve been wrong all these years. Prices have been going up for many years. We are now in a housing bubble. A housing bubble occurs when buyers and speculators push up prices to unreasonable levels.

　　The housing bubble will burst (explode) when prices become too unreasonable. But Hong Kong’s housing bubble has not burst even though prices have become insane (irrational, absurd). Last week, a government Home Ownership Scheme flat of 592 sq ft sold for over $10 million. This made me angry because the government uses taxpayers’ money to build Home Ownership Scheme flats for people with low incomes. The owner bought the flat for only $1.8 million in 1998. This owner has now made a profit of over $8 million. That is unfair for higher income taxpayers like me who are not allowed to buy such homes. Low income people who are eligible to buy such homes can sell them for a big profit after a few years. The government must change the rules for selling such homes.

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What goes up must come down.這句諺語指的是地球引力（gravity），即令物體跌落地面的重力。若你朝天拋擲石頭，它最終會跌回地面。然而，習語“what goes up must come down”也可以用來形容與地球引力（gravity）完全無關的狀況。每當股票市場持續上升了好一陣子，專家總是會出來警告，凡往上升的也必有回落的一刻（what goes up must come down），意即股票市場不會永遠只升不降，遲早也會暴跌的（plummet）。若你的朋友常常在賭博中獲勝，你也可以說：“What goes up must come down”，意謂你朋友不會永遠都贏錢。

　　香港的樓宇價格已經上漲許多年了。我們擁有世上最昂貴的樓市。當我告訴一些海外的朋友，最近有個泊車位以六百萬賣出時，他們都dumbstruck了；若你是 dumbstruck，即是說你震驚得說不出話來、啞口無言（ speechless）了。多年來我都跟自己說，香港的樓價不會永遠都上升，凡事有升必有降（what goes up must come down）；可是，我這麼多年來都錯了，樓價已經上升了許多年。我們現在處於房地產泡沫（housing bubble）之中。當買家和投機炒賣者將樓價推高至不合理的水平時，房地產泡沫（housing bubble）就會出現。

　　當價格變得過於不合理時，這個房地產泡沫（housing bubble）就會爆破（burst）。然而，香港的樓市泡沫（housing bubble）仍未爆破（burst），即使樓價已經變得如此的瘋狂（insane）。上星期，政府「居者有其屋」計劃一個五百九十二方呎的單位，以過千萬元售出。這令我很憤怒，因為政府是用納稅人的錢去為低收入的市民興建居屋。

　　原業主在一九九八年只是以一百八十萬購入單位，這名業主現在獲利超過八百萬元。這對於我這些高收入的納稅人來說很不公平，因我們是不獲准買這些樓的。有資格買這些樓宇的低收入人士，過了幾年便能將單位出售，獲得豐厚的利潤。政府應該改變出售這些樓宇的相關條例。