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jason, who was born in 1995 and is from hong kong, has been quite busy recently. apart from work, he is busy decorating his new house in chongqing. this is not the first property jason has purchased in the mainland. after graduating from the uk, jason chose to work in the mainland. not long after, his hong kong parents, who have been supporting their child with all their strength, bought him a high-rise apartment in chongqing.

the first apartment "trapped" jason - he fell in love with the apartment's designer at first sight, and now he has become the son-in-law of a sichuan and chongqing woman. after forming a small family, the second apartment was naturally on the agenda.

as a hong konger who purchased two houses in chongqing, jason shared his personal experience on his personal social platform, including how hong kongers can remit money to the mainland, what loan policies are there, etc. unexpectedly, he received many private messages from hong kongers asking questions.

however, jason admits that young people like him who choose to settle in the mainland are still a minority. "salaries in hong kong are still much higher than those in the mainland. although the cost of living is also high, many young people can live with their parents. after weighing the pros and cons, they are unlikely to buy a property in the mainland."

which hong kong people buy houses in the mainland?

most of the hong kong people who buy houses in the mainland are middle-aged and elderly people. for example, jason’s relatives in hong kong. their first choice is to buy a house in the greater bay area for “retirement”.

the data confirms hong kong people's enthusiasm for buying houses in the greater bay area: in the first half of this year, the average monthly number of "hong kong cars heading north" exceeded 110,000 times, and the average monthly growth rate of hong kong single-plate cars entering and leaving the hong kong-zhuhai-macao bridge was nearly 34%; since the opening of the shenzhen-zhongshan channel on june 30, the cumulative traffic volume in the first month exceeded 3 million vehicles, and the average daily traffic volume was about 100,000 vehicles.

the convenience of transportation and the absolute advantage of living costs have made many hong kong people unable to hold back: buying houses in the mainland and choosing a different lifestyle. in fact, as early as before 2020, many hong kong people had already bought houses in the mainland.

in 2018, alice bought two apartments in zhuhai for her future retirement living. in alice's blueprint, she wanted to live in one apartment and rent out the other, so that she could enjoy life freely.

"house prices were rising at the time, and the real estate agent recommended a good place. we had originally planned to buy a house, and we bought it after viewing it."

after the policy of hong kong cars going north was opened at the end of last year, alice and her husband drove to the mainland to look at houses again. however, as they had already bought two apartments, they were more cautious. in comparison, many hong kong buyers who came to the mainland to buy houses for the first time had a stronger desire to spend. compared with a few years ago, the current housing prices in the mainland are quite cost-effective, and the real price difference has attracted a large number of hong kong people.

in addition to cities such as zhongshan and zhuhai, which are popular due to their transportation, huizhou, with its low housing prices, has also attracted many low-budget home buyers. a 25-year-old hong kong girl shared on her social media platform that as freelancers, their place of residence is not limited to hong kong, so the couple paid a down payment of 30,000 yuan and bought a house in huizhou.

is it easy for hong kong residents to suffer from acclimatization when buying properties in the mainland?

when selling a property, they say a lot of things, but when the property is delivered, nothing is achieved. even hong kong people cannot escape this common agent trick.

many people who shared their experiences said that they had a terrible home buying experience due to the deception of mainland real estate agents. when alice and her family bought a house, they originally had their eyes on the hengqin district in zhuhai, thinking that it was "very beautiful" and the roads were well built, so they made an appointment with a real estate agent to view the house. however, the house they eventually purchased was in the bonded area because the agent said that it would develop like the hengqin district in the future.

after several years, the house was finally delivered, but the reality was very different from what the real estate agent said: the planned living facilities were not realized, there were many factories around, and there were many unfinished buildings nearby. "hong kong real estate agents are not like this, they just say what they want." however, alice also agreed that after the special period around 2020, "i am very lucky to be able to take over the house."

the purchased building did not meet expectations, so alice's family rented out the two properties. until this year, they rented another house and officially moved to zhuhai.

"sometimes i forget why i bought those two units." the house purchase decision was made on impulse, and now the house price has depreciated by about 60%.

the same thing happened to jason. the high-rise apartment he bought in chongqing cbd has now depreciated by 20%. he admitted that "the purchase of that building was a failure" because in the logic of hong kong people, high-rise apartments in cbd are "value-preserving": excellent location, good property, high market scarcity, and will only become more and more popular in the future, but this logic obviously does not work in chongqing.

high-net-worth individuals in chongqing prefer to live in villas and foreign-style houses. in addition, "the average household income in chongqing is relatively discontinuous, and the middle-class income is relatively low, so the customer base will be weak in succession." after reviewing the failure of the first house, when buying a house for the second time, jason incorporated more local thinking, comprehensively considering scarcity, quality, and his own preferences, "but what i value most is value preservation."

in his opinion, real estate is dead, while property is "alive". "we are still young, so we must work harder to accumulate wealth so that we will have more time to enjoy it in the future."

when it comes to buying a house, the difference in thinking among hong kong people often leads them to make some wrong decisions. for example, "99% of hong kong people consider feng shui before buying a house." however, as jason said, no matter where you buy a house, you must first clarify the priorities of your demands. if you are satisfied with other aspects of the house, then "as long as the feng shui is acceptable, it's fine."

“i don’t regret moving to the mainland for now”

even though the property she bought in the mainland has depreciated, alice still has no regrets moving to zhuhai. "so far, everything is satisfactory." it only takes more than half an hour to drive from zhuhai to hong kong, but the cost of living is several times different.

alice did the math for us: in hong kong, a couple needs to spend hk$15,000 a month on groceries, electricity and property management fees, hk$4,000 a month on parking, plus mortgage payments, so their monthly living costs are around hk$50,000 to hk$60,000. “and that’s without kids.”

in zhuhai, the apartment they rented only costs nt$4,500 and the parking space is nt$300, "really much cheaper". before the pandemic, alice ran her own beauty business in hong kong. in recent years, she and her husband decided to retire early, closed the studio in hong kong, and moved to zhuhai with their two cats. after moving to the mainland, the rent of the house in hong kong was just enough to cover the loan, "i will return to hong kong to work when the work requires it."

before the new wave of hong kong people buying houses in the mainland, several hong kong friends interviewed suggested that everyone rent a house for a while to see how it goes. "compared to the house price, the rent is really cheap," and it is completely possible to rent a house for a while before making a decision.

jason's plan is to move his family back to hong kong if he has children in a few years, and then return to sichuan to retire after retirement - even hong kong people who love to work hard all their lives feel that academic studies in the mainland are too competitive.