Aerial view of high-rise buildings in Hong Kong's Kowloon District, pictured in July 2020.
Values for the vast majority of properties have surged since the handover, and some have achieved eye-popping levels of appreciation. As a result the city has in the past decade repeatedly been crowned with dubious titles such as"the most unaffordable" and"the most expensive" housing market. Chan sold the flat at a loss in November 2006, offloading it for HK$480,000, according to official records he provided. At the time, he needed to move to another district and did not believe leasing the flat would yield much return.However, the flat one floor below his changed hands at HK$4.1 million in March last year, according to records from property platform Property.hk.
Chan, who started his agency in 1995 and has also worked as a civil servant, regrets the hit he took on his Tuen Muen flat. He expressed empathy for young people today, who may not even get the chance to make such poorly timed choices.