City Beat | Even Olympic gold is not enough to buy a decent home in Hong Kong’s notorious property market
- The HK$7.5 million awarded to fencer Edgar Cheung for bringing home the city’s first gold in 25 years may seem like a princely sum
- But even modestly sized flats can go for much more in a city that has long struggled to increase its share of affordable housing
To put it into perspective, consider the lottery grand prize that a major developer recently offered to boost the city’s sluggish inoculation rate – a brand new single-bedroom flat measuring 449 sq ft, or 42 square metres, valued at HK$10.8 million.
As exorbitant as it may sound for such a small living space, the market price is quite reasonable, given the extremely convenient location of the property above a major MTR station.
HK$7.5 million was the amount that Hong Kong fencing champion Edgar Cheung Ka-long received after winning the city’s first Olympic gold medal in 25 years. HK$5 million came from the government’s Athletes Incentive Awards scheme, while HK$2.5 million was a personal donation by Hong Kong Sports Institute head Lam Tai-fai, who promised years ago to help any future Olympic medallist become a “homeowner”.
But how much can you get for HK$2.5 million in today’s housing market? To be fair to Lam, he might not have anticipated back then the trajectory of Hong Kong’s runaway property prices.
Some would argue that it could at least help with the down payment, and they have a point, provided the buyer can afford to shell out tens of thousands of dollars a month for decades to pay off the mortgage.
“Not enough land” has long been the refrain to explain astronomical home prices, but a simple “why” remains the question. The inelastic need for housing has never changed in Hong Kong, even under the economic ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
