Society

Mainlanders live in luxury in Hong Kong

By Gao Qihui (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-06-27 16:57

Mainlanders own the majority of Hong Kong's top-end mansions, according to real estate figures.

About 70 percent of Hong Kong's luxury houses worth more than HK$100 million ($12.83 million) were purchased by Chinese mainlanders, according to the latest statistics released by a trans-national real estate company, the People's Daily Overseas Edition reported Monday.

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Data from the Hong Kong-based real estate company showed mainlanders also purchased 20 percent houses worth over HK$10 million houses, 30 percent of houses worth over HK$20 million and 40 percent of houses worth over HK$50 million.

Though housing prices in Hong Kong have soared by nearly 100 percent since 2009, it has not cooled the enthusiasm of rich mainland purchasers for buying houses in the city.

Lee Shau Kee, founder and chairman of Henderson Land Development Company Limited, described the attitude of these rich mainland purchasers as one where they will "not buy unless it is expensive".

In a recent purchase, a young post-80s married woman, referring to the generation whose members were born on the mainland between 1980 to 1989, spent HK$345 million to buy a luxury mansion in Hong Kong, shocking the public.