[Erik_S]

Dear all,

Hopefull you are able to shed some light on some of my questions. Your expertise is highly appreciated!

My future career plan is to work in Hong Kong in three years from now. I have saved some money and I want to buy property in Hong Kong already now. I will rent out this apartment for the time being and start using it when I start working in HK (but still three years to go). I think buying at this moment can be quite lucrative, due to low interest rate and high exchange rate euro vs HK$ (I am from Europe). Please correct me if I am wrong on this.

The main goal for the moment is to buy an apartment which is easy to rent out. As I see a lot of expats who are with wife and often one child, I think buying a 600-700 sq/ft place with two bedrooms would be good enough. I hope to buy something between HK$ 3.0m - HK$ 3.5m. I also see that a lot of expats are working in Central, so technicallyit would be good to find something with MTR connection.

As I am totally new in this, all relevant infromation and details are welcome. My main questions are:

- Which area is suitable for my scenario? Should it be in HK Island or go to for instance Olympic or Kowloon (Tung Chung MTR)?
- I would like to buy an apartment not too old (max 5 years). Is that achievable with my budget?
- Are there realtors who can advise without having the $$ look in their eyes? Because I think realtors always stay in their "own" neighbourhood, therefore their opinion is not always objective.
- I will not be in HK all the time, I prefer to have an agent to look after my apartment and use his network to rent out the place. Inevitably, he will receive a fee for this. Is that a good strategy?
- Any new builds on the plan at the moment which are wort mentioning?

Thanks a lot! Really appreciate any feedback!

Erik

[Asia]

Yes i have the same needs lets pool our resources no this

[heihei]

Firstly, please forgive my badly English and hope you guys understand.

I know that the interest rate is really low at this moment, however, the housing price is like on the peak prices. If you buy a flat now, you might expect it will slump in the near future (although i do not when).

Oppositely, my parents are going to sell the flat to get some cash. Since the value of the flat is like 40% more than the time they bought. And they are going to rent a flat temporarily and buy one when the price has gone down.

I suggest you think thoroughly before buying a flat. Hope this helps.

heihei

[Erik_S]

I do believe that prices are sky high at the moment. As interest is dropping, the demand for property will grow. On the other hand, when US recession has been stopped, the interest will go up rapidly. Your mortgage costs will rise, so the question is: are the lower interest costs compensating the higher prices at the moment?

I don't think there will be such thing as subprime in Hong Kong. The chronical problem of too many people and too little ground will sustain. I don't foresee the scenario of '97 or Sars, when the prices dropped dramatically, in the near future. I even believe that China lowering the restrictions of Chinese people going to HK will help the property prices.

The only thing that can cause a major drop in housing prices is when the Hang Seng index is going to collapse. As you might understand, the fundamentals of the HK stock exchange is not there. Prices are now based on too positive speculations. When the bubble bursts, property might get hit as well.

[Boris]

Originally Posted by heihei

Firstly, please forgive my badly English and hope you guys understand.

I know that the interest rate is really low at this moment, however, the housing price is like on the peak prices. If you buy a flat now, you might expect it will slump in the near future (although i do not when).

Oppositely, my parents are going to sell the flat to get some cash. Since the value of the flat is like 40% more than the time they bought. And they are going to rent a flat temporarily and buy one when the price has gone down.

I suggest you think thoroughly before buying a flat. Hope this helps.

heihei

The price of property is still not at the levels seen in 97 so if your parents are going to rent and wait for prices to crash they have a LONG LONG wait yet to go.

Its pretty obvious from what and how you say it that you have little knowledge about the property business in HK.

Even if you are local or not.

[heihei]

Boris, you are right, i dont have much knowledge about property business in Hk since i even dont have my own property.

forgive my shallow knowledge

[PDLM]

heihei,

Don't let Boris upset you. I'm sure your parents know far more about the property market here than him - he's just a jumped up squaddie who arrived a few months ago and thinks he knows everything already.

In fact the real data says that you are right and he is wrong.
http://www.rvd.gov.hk/en/doc/statistics/rvd3_2.pdf
http://www.rvd.gov.hk/en/doc/statistics/his_data_4.pdf

Boris is only interested in bullshit - unfortunately I can't find any bullshit indices, but they undoubtedly increased dramatically when he arrived.

[walkup]

Your perspective of buying into property is essentially sound. However there is one particular problem which is that you are aiming for new build. If you want something in Mid-levels such as Centre Stage then you will need more like $5m not $3m. There is still good value in the Sheung Wan/Hollywood Road area at prices < 3m but these are old Chinese building apartments and you need to have a good eye.