Market feeding perilously on the flow of hot money
(Published by South China Morning Post, 09 Sep 2009) There is no doubt that Hong Kong’s residential property market has defied all logic, expectations, and global market trends. Property prices for the mass market have risen 15 to 20 per cent since November last year, while the upper-end/luxury market has catapulted ahead anywhere from 25 per cent to 75 per cent. By contrast, for the past 18 months, beginning with the onset of the recent depression-like market slowdown, residential property markets in developed countries such as the United States, England, Japan and Australia have fallen anywhere from 25 to 60 per cent. Even on the mainland, residential property prices in most major cities have been flat or marginally higher, with Shenzhen the outperformer.