Bleak outlook doesn't mean it's time to offload your flat
'The outlook for Hong Kong's housing market has become clouded with uncertainty as the near three-year cycle of retreating interest rates appears to be turning and borrowing costs look set to begin rising again.'
Property, July 2
Our weekly property section is all good stuff and, being a slumlord myself (property in Canada), I go through it regularly to brief myself on the state of the property market, both here and abroad.
Sometimes, however, I get the itch to tell the boss that we might do a better service to the property investing public if we published it only once a year and then only to say: 'It's okay, folks. You're doing fine. Don't worry yourself so much. The market's come off a bit recently [may come off a bit soon] but it will come back.'
My own rule in these matters is that, if worry about any of my investments wakes me up in the middle of the night, then that investment gets sold first thing in the morning. I reckon that sleepless nights are a poor return on my money. I like something I can live with and forget about occasionally when I have other things on my mind.
And despite the price gyrations for which the Hong Kong property market is so notable, I think it generally falls into this class of investment. The price changes mostly in relation to what people think a certain standard asset is worth at any one time and that has mostly to do with external events we do not control. The standard of the standard asset changes much less.
We certainly do not suffer from the huge scale of overbuilding and irresponsible financing that plagues the property market in the United States at the moment.