After 1997, the prices of real estate in HongKong dropped near 70%. There was no “credit bubble” in the real estate and none of the big developers went bankrupt.
I cannot seem to find much useful information regarding this economic event online.
I was just curious to know if anyone had any thoughts or info on why this occurred.
Everyone took out their capital before Hong Kong was turned over to China.
Good call, I’m sure that was a factor.
On the other hand, I think it may not explain the whole picture, because everyone knew in advance that HK was going to get turned over to China.
At this tme, I can only assume that the HK investors anticipated the transfer to China was going to be more lucrative for them than what it actually ended up being.
Ehm, Hong Kong 1997? That was the year of the Asian Financial Crisis. That would have played a role, no?
Marko has it right:
The Asian financial crisis could have easily caused the collapse in HK’s real estate values.
Thank you all. This is good information, and I think it makes for a much more complete picture of the situation.
You may want to look at the crisis enveloping much of Asia at the time, there is some more stuff to read and could lead to Hong Kong as well.