Soaring property prices mean Hongkongers in Shenzhen can’t afford to move home
Average home prices in Shenzhen were about half of those in Hong Kong in 2017, according to data by Cushman and Wakefield
Mark Tang, a Hongkonger who has been living in Shenzhen for 10 years, has to defer his plan to move back to the city, even though his wife is about to deliver a baby in September.
The businessman, who moved across the border after retiring in his early 40s, bought a 1,670 square foot apartment for 3 million yuan (US$476,940) three years ago, in southern Shenzhen’s Liantang district, an hour’s bus ride from Kowloon Tong in Hong Kong.
“I had no plan to return to Hong Kong until my wife got pregnant. I wanted to educate my child in Hong Kong,” he said. But his plan was cast in doubt after he saw the home prices in Hong Kong, which have placed the city among the least affordable metropolitan areas in the world to live in.
“Now, I could sell the apartment in Shenzhen for about 5 million yuan, which can be used to buy a new apartment of about 300 sq ft in Hong Kong,” said Tang. “Shall I go and downsize in Hong Kong? It would be stupid to act now.”
For the same price, homebuyers can get a new apartment of about 255 sq ft, the equivalent of two car parking spaces, in Henderson Land Development’s South Walk Aura in Aberdeen, which translates to about HK$24,350 per square foot.