Is Hong Kong’s property market heading for its biggest crash since 1997?

If history is any guide,the long queues of property buyers at Hong Kong’s Tsuen Wan residential project last weekend could be the harbinger of a bubble in the world’s most expensive housing market.

They were willing to ignore record-level prices and mortgage rates that had just been raised the night before by four of the city’s largest banks.

Photos of long queues at the weekend and reports that broke transaction and price records one after another have touched a nerve in Norman Chan Tak-lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city’s de facto central banker.

One who usually chooses his words carefully, Chan said the high turnout rate was reminiscent of the property market’s 1997 peak and saw conditions that eventually led to a market crash and a six-year slump. There were risks that the property bubble might burst in the city, he said.

Nicholas Brooke,chairman of Professional Property Services Group agreed.

“There are similarities to 1997 in terms of price rises, the queuing, the long upward cycle and the strong general buying momentum in the market,” Brooke said.