Financialization and the role of real estate in Hong Kong's regime of accumulation

The greater dominance of finance in the global economic system is widely considered to have increased instability and created difficulties in constructing modes of regulation that could stabilize post-Fordist regimes of accumulation. Heightened competition and the discipline of global finance restrict the use of Fordist strategies that expand social wages to balance production and consumption. Robert Boyer suggested a model for a possible stable finance-led growth regime. His hypothesis is that once there are sufficient stocks of property in a nation, expenditures that are based on capital gains, dividends, interest, and pensions can compensate for diminished wage-based demand. We contend that the neglect of real estate is a serious limitation, since housing wealth is more significant than other forms of equity for most citizens, and thus that it fails to capture the impact of the perceptions and choices of ordinary citizens. We then argue that features of a finance-led regime of accumulation and a property-based mode of regulation appeared in Hong Kong relatively early. A case study of Hong Kong is used to extend Boyer's discussion, as well as to diagnose Hong Kong's experience for its lessons on the impact of such developments.