Dozens of British residential development schemes are launched in Hong Kong before being offered to buyers in Britain.
Estate agency Knight Frank has sold 450 homes to Hong Kong buyers at 10 housing schemes so far this year, and plans eight more exhibitions in the autumn. Rival estate agency Savills is launching 13 British projects in Hong Kong this year. Other agents and developers have launched British schemes, too.
Gary Patrick, the London sales director of developer Barratt Homes, said his firm exhibited properties in Hong Kong before Britain, because of strong demand from investors. '[Hong Kong] investors now come to us and ask what we have for sale, not the other way round. Currently, around 25 per cent of all new homes we build in London are being sold in Hong Kong, Singapore and China,' Patrick said.
Developer St James took 11 reservations from Hong Kong buyers at the launch of its London project, Silvermill, this summer, and is bringing Manhattan Apartments, another London scheme, to Hong Kong in September.
Launching a development in Hong Kong gives buyers an advantage over their British counterparts, Paul Bennett, sales and marketing director at St James, said. 'I would say that prices generally are around about the same, but the Hong Kong market gets the pick of the premium plots and the first opportunities,' he said.
Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, said a lack of mortgage funding stopped Britons from buying at new developments.