Surveyors warn they are targeting the wrong type of investment property to benefit from the supply and demand imbalance
After a quiet end to last year, Hong Kong investors are piling back into British residential property, hoping to profit from the country's housing shortage, estate agents said.
Investors expect prices to surge in three to five years' time because of a widening supply and demand imbalance in Britain's residential sales market.
However, surveyors are warning that Hong Kong investors are targeting the wrong types of property to gain any benefit from this imbalance.
Hong Kong investors are buying flats, but the type of property in shortest supply is houses.
Sixty-six British apartments were sold off-plan at two exhibitions held in Hong Kong recently. Most Hong Kong investors are targeting the British capital.
Colliers International sold 20 of 28 one and two-bedroom flats at the Vie apartment block in Cambridge at an exhibition in Hong Kong earlier this month. Prices at this development, built by Redeham Homes, start at GBP199,950 ($2.8 million).