(Camera: Ricoh GX200)The property sales agents are so keen on striking a business deal that they post notices on the gate of the vacant premises for rent to give out their contact numbers: Mr Chung 96208853, Mr Lee 92290036, Mr Lam 97206696……
Some economists has warned that the spiraling hike of the local property prices is auguring a soon to burst property market bubble. The warning will last for a moment long every time it is sounded. While the bubble is fermenting and until it really bursts, the rising temperature of the property market is as predictable as that of the coming summer. The increasing lucrative property transactions have already exceeded, both in terms of volume and prices of the residential units at or above 100 square metres, the baseline of 100 compared to the property market in 1997 when it crumbled. According to a recent analysis of the Monetary Authority, Hong Kong's de facto central bank, the measurement of the transactions of such residential units was recorded at 111.2 in December 2010.
Without putting the claim to close scrutiny, the author has heard stories from some market-speculating friends. These speculators would snappily purchase several expensive new flats, locally known as "Ho Zak (stately residential home)" in Cantonese, on initial sales. In a few weeks time, their contacts or themselves will sell the flats at a higher price to the wealthy buyers from Mainland China. Such buyers are aplenty according to them.
Last year when the author visited Sydney and Melbourne, the property markets there showed evidence of the a similar phenomenon. An upmarket apartment near the Victoria Market in Melbourne which the author visited has tripled in price in a period of ten years.
This is not to put the blame on the rich people from whichever area or country. This is just to say that we are living at a inflationary time. But as a physical rule, every rising has a falling. The matter is when and how drastic the falling will take place. For the time being, to be the poor pots calling the rich kettles black, we can bet on how high the property price will reach.
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