HONG KONG investors are starting to emerge as players in the Japanese residential property market, according to a Japan specialist at property consultants Vigers Hong Kong.
Kinko McCafferty, head of Vigers' Japan section, said Hong Kong interest in the Japanese residential property market was developing because the gap in house prices between the two was narrowing.
Japan has long been the world's most expensive place to buy luxury houses and flats, while Hong Kong is the second most expensive.
But a 48 per cent fall in prices across all property sectors in Japan since 1993 meant the cost of buying an upmarket home there was nearing that of Hong Kong, she said, even though capital values in the territory had fallen 30 per cent over the past 18 months.
However, potential Hong Kong investors may be wise to wait before spending any money on Japanese bricks and mortar because prices may fall further.
It may be another two years before the Japanese housing market bottomed out, she said. She predicted a further 20 per cent fall in values over that period. Prices for homes built to international standards were traditionally expensive in Japan because so few existed, she said.
