Chinese buyers flee Hong Kong for overseas property markets
Hong Kong government measures to cool the property market helping to send cashed-up mainland buyers further afield
On the seventh floor of a luxury hotel in the heart of Hong Kong, a Chinese couple listens carefully as an agent takes them on a virtual tour of an upmarket property development for sale - not in the former British colony, but in London.
Cash-rich mainland Chinese, who some in Hong Kong blame for pushing property prices to record highs, have fled the city’s real estate market, scared off by cooling measures that have sent them scouring overseas for better options.
For many, the search starts in the ballrooms of Hong Kong’s luxury hotels which host overseas property fairs nearly every weekend, offering prospective buyers a glimpse of homes abroad while providing refreshments such as sparkling water and the bite-sized Cantonese snack dim sum.
“We can only see pictures of the project now so that’s why we have to go to London to take a look at the environment of the building,” said Christina Chen, who flew with her husband from Shanghai to Hong Kong to check out plans of a development at London’s Olympic Park before flying there herself to see it.
“The return on investment is much higher in London than in China and Hong Kong,” she said in a room at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental, a popular choice for property exhibitors.
Mainland Chinese accounted for 18 per cent of new luxury home sales in Hong Kong in the first quarter - the lowest level in four years - down from 43 per cent in the third quarter of last year, before cooling measures were announced, according to real estate company Centaline Property Agency.