Hong Kong's housing market has shown little sign of cooling after years of consistent price increases. In response, the government is now considering another controversial measure.

Property in the semi-autonomous region of China has long ranked among the World’s most expensive due to inadequate land supply, robust speculation, demand from mainland Chinese buyers and years of enticingly low interest rates. Although many responses have been considered, the city's government is now considering a tax on vacant apartments.

The new tax is seen as a way to increase supply by encouraging developers to sell stock rather than wait for prices to go higher. Hong Kong wouldn't be the first to implement such a scheme - it would follow cities such as Singapore and Vancouver - but experts expressed doubt about whether such a levy by itself is enough. Instead, they said, the government measure would be just as much about politics as property.

“I see this policy as a demonstration that the government is doing something to remedy the situation (but) without much real impact,” Mathew Wong, a politics professor at the University of Hong Kong, told CNBC.