You think your property market is bad, try living here.

You could write a book this and I imagine it is a subject of every dinner table conversation every day in Hong Kong... any tourist will immediately notice there are not that many houses, particularly on Hong Kong Island, this is due to lack of available land, so we all live in high rise apartment blocks (unless you are seriously minted) there are some beautiful houses and apartment blocks here which make for some great photo’s and wishful thinking.

Hong Kong property prices can be summed up in one simple word "absurd". Prices do not seem to be based on reality.. here the Government Planners seem to think that 400 - 500 sqft is the perfect size for a family of 4 / 6 / 8, (I think every family should have at least 1,200 - 1,600 sqft which is a decent size but not extravagant)

This is where reality goes out of the window.. a 1,600 sqft flat will rent out at about US$6,000 - US$7,000 a month depending on the district (and even higher in trendy locations) and you will need US$2 - 3 million to buy one!

Westminister Terrace in Tin Kau, close to Tsuen Wan in the NT is to me a classic example of the absurdity of the Hong Kong property market.

The building is very nice and clearly the developer has spent a good deal of money on the particular development and the flats are around 3,300 sqft, which is pretty large, yet to buy one you need to stump up HK$40 million (US$5.15 million) yet this place is in a suburb of a large working class area, ok it has views of the Tin Kau and Tsing Ma bridges but the views does not compare with Victoria Harbour.

The absurdity gets worse, many property agencies proclaim that the flats in this development to be an absolute bargain and the funny thing is, they are right, on Hong Kong Island a similar size flat will sell for HK$60 - HK$90 million (US$7.7 - US$11.6 million) - just for a moment think about what you could buy in your country for the same amount.

At these prices buying property in Hong Kong remains a pipe dream for the vast majority and this means that here Property Agents have about the same status level as Traffic Wardens, you can hear the cheers miles away when the property market plummets (and yes, sometimes it does)