If one were to write a history of the Hong Kong property market, a chapter on how new flats are sold would be most entertaining. Just over 20 years ago, buying a flat was a straightforward business. One saw an advert in the paper, went to the site, looked at the show flats, got a price list, then mulled over with the family which unit to buy.
All that changed with the property boom that started in the mid-1980s. Long queues outside uncompleted developments became a familiar sight. Rising property values made investing in bricks and mortar such a sure win that people were prepared to line up days before sales began.
Just a place in the queue was a valuable asset that could be sold for tens of thousands of dollars. Many buyers were speculators with the sole intention of reselling for a quick profit. When it was their turn to make a purchase, they would simply sign up for one or more units by looking at the price list, not even glancing at the show flats.
The business was so lucrative that the triads turned up, too. Soon there were scuffles, then fights, in the queues. Rival gangs had ingenious ways of identifying themselves. Some wore gloves, others arm bands. One gang turned up with every member chewing a drinking straw.
To prevent mayhem - let alone the stampedes that were a common occurrence - flats stopped being sold on a first-come-first-served basis. Instead, one paid a deposit to take part in a lottery to decide who would get a chance to make a purchase. At the height of the boom, the amount of capital frozen by an 'initial public offering' of new flats at a popular development could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Then came the calamitous collapse of the property market in 1998. Suddenly, new flats were no longer a sure ticket to a big fortune: developers had to invest in marketing them. Property agents that used to operate only in the second-hand market were appointed to push for sales.