Park Island, Ma Wan, Hong Kong

A snake was spotted on Park Island. Quite a big deal apparently. Police were called, and a "snake expert" was brought in to capture the snake. Here's a photo of the poor little guy... The snake is obviously terrified. Hopefully he was captured and released somewhere nice rather than being killed. What's the bet we see Park Island management erect a "No Snakes Allowed" sign :)

A Hong Kong construction site There are still around 100 village houses under construction, on Ma Wan, apparently. Here is a photo of some of them under construction. The construction process seems to be well planned and orderly (quite the opposite to the usual chaos that you see when village houses are constructed). The reason for this is that the entire Ma Wan village was planned and is being built by Sun Hun Kai, who under an agreement with the villagers agreed to provide a certain number of houses for them. And in case anyone is worried, the villagers (or indeed anyone who lives in these houses) will not be able to use the Park Island facilities such as the pools and gym etc. Only Park Island residents with resident cards can get access to these facilities. The village does have some facilities that anyone the island can use. They have a tennis court (that seems be more often used for soccer), and a large soccer stadium, and also kids play areas. I know some foreigners who a...

For anyone wondering how prices are doing on Park Island, I am including the graph below, which is the most recent property price trend for Hong Kong property prices right up to today. For those of you who were hoping for a dip so you can buy, I am sorry to tell you that Park Island apartments hit a new high this month, up 2%. So much for the recent financial turmoil leading to property buying opportunities! Further, so far this year Park Island property prices have outperformed average Hong Kong property prices, Hong Kong island property prices, Kowloon property prices, and also property prices in the New Territories. Park Island Property Prices In the above graph, Park Island prices are in the blue colour, outperforming everything. The blue line below are the average prices for Hong Kong overall. The red line is for property prices in Kowloon. And the pink line is for NT property prices. So what is Park Island outperforming, and continuing to rise even in these recent...

A number of long term Park Island residents have remarked to me lately that almost every week they are seeing new ex-pats around. It seems the influx of expats living on Park Island is very noticable to all, and I am sure this trend will continue. Park Island still has a majority Chinese population, but my guess is that the demographics will continuously shift towards a larger percentage of expats over time. Some of the expat residents renting on the island are not to happy about this, with there being an understandable concern that increased demand from expats will lead to increase in Park Island rents. You know those old Chinese people you see each morning doing tai chi in the Piazza? Well, guess what - a local expat has, apparently, joined them. I was told he was recently seen among them, with a sheepish smile on his face, doing morning tai chi exercises with them. And no he was not mocking them - he was serious about it! Good on him I say - maybe he's on to a good th...

I have heard on quite good authority that a well known Hong Kong singer is in the process of moving to Park Island. I even know which Tower! Let's all not try to stare to much, as I am sure she would like to feel just as relaxed here as the rest of us. And please don't try to snap pics of her by the pool. That's just tacky. I will not say who it is, but keep an eye out for her - you will probably recognize her if you know anything about canto-pop.

The anxiety of the US debt crisis caused mayhem on the world's stock markets last week, and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was no exception, dropping nearly 2000 points. The fear of an economic slowdown also apparently affected property sales in Hong Kong, with there being a number of reports of recent buyers of apartments forfeiting deposits and failing to complete purchase agreements for fear that property prices might fall. So called property "experts" in Hong Kong appear divided on whether the recent crisis will have any effect on the continued growth in property prices Hong Kong has seen over the last few years. My own view is that prices are likely to keep rising, after perhaps a month or two of short-term uncertainty. The US Fed said at its last policy meeting that it will keep its benchmark short-term interest rates at close to zero through to at least mid-2013. This ensures continued super-cheap borrowing in HK (due the the HKD peg to the USD), and it means we wil...

Here are some photos of a Park Island apartment I came across last night in Block 1. Looks like really nice Balinese style apartment rennovation, that works well in the context of Park Island's relaxing beach lifestyle. A nicely rennovated Park Island apartment