Bad ideas can go a long way when repeated often enough. One of the worst is the new consensus being aired by developers, property agents and analysts suggesting an imminent boom in office prices.
Since the peak of the 1994 frenzy, capital values have fallen a crushing 50 per cent for buildings that saw the most speculative trading.
Now, the argument is that lower prices and huge rental demand from mainland companies setting up in the territory before the handover will support a reinvigorated market.
That was the message of new listing Wah Tak Fung Holdings, whose managing director said the company's 104 per cent gearing should be seen as a leveraged play on the office market.
The developer of grade B office space expects to clean up from a price surge in secondary office space it tips at 30 per cent next year.
Such statements would have seemed ridiculous just months ago. But being a property bull is now fashionable.