Following is the transcript (English part) of the media session by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, after visiting Kwun Tong District this afternoon:

Reporter: There have been reports that prices of property have already moved up in response to the announcement of the allowance for mortgage interest. Is it really beneficial to the first time buyers who want to buy a house ...?

Mr Tung: I think as I said just a little bit time ago that the purpose of this tax incentive is to encourage home buyers and that insofar as the property price itself is concerned. I have said many times on many occasions that we do not want to see the property prices shoot through the roof. Neither do we want to see it fall like a tonne of bricks. What we want to see is a stable property price, affordable property price and that at the end of the day the Government does have a lot of land on hand to ensure the stability of the property price.