Park Island, Ma Wan, Hong Kong

Agents on Ma Wan say asking prices hit all time high since this weekend, especially as people are seeking more space and more bedrooms as the work from home trend continues. They also complain that as soon as they find buyers, the sellers will put up their prices, which must be incredibly annoying both for buyers and for agents. Yet HSBC and Standard Chartered property valuations for Park Island are still below record valuations that we had a few years ago, so that makes it even harder for buyers to get finance. (Maybe to deliberately push buyers to new developments?) Who is correct I guess time will tell. But hold on to your hats. As an expat in Hong Kong for many years I have seen in the past how Hong Kongers can behave when it comes to property, It can get crazy once it gets to a certain point of demand where they all turn into a frenzy!

Change is upon us. Those of us who hike around the island will have seen some parts to access the Old Village fenced off. This is because the HKSAR has announced a land grant to Ma Wan Park Limited (MWPL). MAWP is a subsidiary of Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited (SHK) (who developed the Park Island estate on Ma Wan). Under an agreement with the Government, MAWP is in charge of both the development and then the subsequent operation of Ma Wan Park (MWP). The Ma  Wan Park  is classified as "a community project without commercial gain" and the facilities developed and provided are intended to benefit both the Ma Wan community and Hong Kong as whole. The operation is intended to be "self-financing and commercially sustainable" with any net profit to be generated from the operation should be put back into the future beneficial development of Ma Wan. Both parties have been in discussions for a long time on Phase 2. The development will focus on the preservation, restoration...

This post is not so much specifically about Park Island, but rather about the HK property market 2021 outlook. I'm amazed at the prices new condos in Hong Kong are being snapped up at in recent days. A friend of mine just bought s 570 square foot place in Admility HK, on Star Street for 17.5m off the plan. Add to that around 3m of stamp duty are you are looking at around 20m total cost . He's one of those people who were lucky enough to get into the HK property market many years ago, and now he usually buys a new condo once every few years using prior gains as equity. His advice - "HK property always goes up over time. It is never a bad time to get into the market. The key is to take that first step onto the ladder. It gets easier from from there". He's an expat, but what he says about property is almost a universal and unquestioned truth for local Hong Kongers also. Here's the condo:  EightStarStreet . Nice development, and location but its not cheap. What do...

Nice way to start and end the day...

We have seen a number of recent announcements from the Government pushing e-cars (and also cleaner fuel ferries). For example: https://www.asiaone.com/asia/hong-kong-phase-out-fossil-fuel-cars-and-go-all-electric-minister-says https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3035165/hong-kong-phase-out-fossil-fuel-cars-and-go-all The reports all indicate plans for Hong Kong plans to phase out all fossil fuel vehicles over the next 10 to 20 years and switch to electric modes of commercial and public transport with a view to improving air quality, One commonly cited objection to those who are opposed to more residents owning cars on Ma Wan / Park Island is that residents want "clean air" and chose Park Island "to be away from pollution". Whilst I personally doubt that normal cars would add any significant noticeable "pollution" on Ma Wan, I do think that the idea of electric cars only for Ma Wan would be great. These cars are ...

My last post on the Park Island blog was titled  Well that didn't take long . I was referring to the admirable community spirit of Ma Wan residents cleaning up after Hong Kong got hit my massive typhoon, but I could just as well have used that same title for the subject of today's topic, which is about the rapid recovery of the Hong Kong property market. Take a look at the graph of Park Island property prices for 2019: Park Island Price Graph 2019 Look at that massive spike that has taken place over the last few weeks. This price increase has been mirrored across the Hong Kong property market generally, but the upward trend for Park Island has been particularly sharp. Why? Well, at a general level, we have the US Fed reducing its outlook for rate rises in 2019. This is positive globally for assets (as assets are usually financed using debt, and if the cost of debt is lower then assets become more "affordable"). In Hong Kong this effect is even ...

Check out how quickly Ma Wan got cleaned up after the typhoon. What a great sense of community Park Islanders have! It was really quite touching and inspiring to see so many pitch in and help out in restoring their homes after the typhoon.