Video Game Empire

() The hottest topic in Hong Kong in May was "high property prices, whether there is a ready-made bubble". Affected by the political-political turmoil in the Mainland, a new round of immigration has suddenly emerged in Hong Kong since the second half of last year. A large number of Hong Kong people who are preparing to immigrate overseas are eager to sell their properties, causing Hong Kong property prices to plummet, slashing by a third in a few months.

But since the beginning of this year, the shadow of "political turmoil" began to fade, and everyone's mentality has recovered from the previous panic to calm. Citizens with rigid housing needs took advantage of the low property prices and took advantage of the low price, so the property market in Hong Kong quickly recovered. Especially not long ago, after the Oriental Group announced that it will launch a new round of large-scale investment in the mainland, the confidence of the entire market has been boosted.

As the largest local consortium in Hong Kong, Dongfang Group, as the richest man in the world for many years, has expressed his optimism about the future development prospects of the mainland with practical actions. This undoubtedly made many people who were anxious and uneasy, took a reassurance. After all, when the sky falls, the taller bears it first, and Li Xuan, the super rich man, will naturally become the weather vane in the eyes of many people!

Recently, speculation that has disappeared for nearly a year has reappeared in Hong Kong once again. There is a grapevine that Changshi Group will launch the Huijing Garden real estate ahead of schedule, so there is a long queue of two or three thousand people buying houses overnight in front of the Chinese branch of Changshi Group's headquarters.

In the mid-1980s, Li Jiacheng cooperated with the Hong Kong MTR Corporation and won several subway station superstructure projects in one fell swoop. The Huijing Garden, built on the platform of Lam Tin Station of MTR Line 2, is the last large-scale private housing estate project developed by Changshi Company along the subway line. Although Changshi Company then urgently came out to refute the rumor, saying that Huijing Garden was planned to be completed in August 1992, and the company would not open within this year, but the people in line were still reluctant to leave.

Due to the limited scale of Huijing Garden, the total number of residential units that can be provided in the nine buildings of the entire complex is less than 1,000. According to the sales practice of Hong Kong developers, the units launched for the first time only account for 70-80% of the total number of residential units at most.

In other words, the people in the second half of the line have no chance to buy a house at all. As a result, ironic speculative transactions appeared on the scene, and a speculator simply began to discuss with the person at the front of the line. He was willing to buy a queue number at a price of 50,000 Hong Kong dollars each, but a group of people didn't respond.

In the end, when the price was raised all the way to HK$70,000, only one person who was ranked 50th in the team stood up and sold his position with money on the spot! This scene happened after Cheung Kong has refuted the rumors on the spot, saying that there is no sales plan today, which shows how prevalent the trend of property speculation is in Hong Kong.

The term "off-the-plan" was first coined by Huo Yingdong, known as the "red capitalist", in the 1950s. It is a kind of pre-sale house to put it bluntly. At that time, Huo Yingdong, who had just earned his first pot of gold by smuggling scarce supplies to the mainland during the Korean-Korean War, was determined to enter the real estate industry in Hong Kong.

However, real estate is a capital-intensive industry, and Huo's accumulated strength is still slightly insufficient. So Huo Yingdong came up with a way to "sell off-the-plan". When the real estate just started construction, it was sold at a certain discounted price. In this way, he can withdraw funds in advance and use the money of the buyer to build the building, which greatly reduces the development cost and development risk of the building.

For home buyers, buying home options in advance can get a bigger discount than buying an existing home. After the house is delivered, even if you don’t live in it yourself, you can resell it to other buyers at the opening price, and you can get a lot of difference in the middle. This is the origin of speculation.

Of course, speculating on off-the-plan properties needs to be based on the premise that housing prices are rising and the property market is in short supply. For example, the property price in Hong Kong plummeted last year, and it was cut by a third in just a few months, causing people who speculate in the property to vomit blood and choose to default halfway.

Buying off-plan property can be divided into two types according to the payment method. One is a one-time settlement, which gives the greatest discount. The other is to pay in installments according to the construction progress of the real estate, such as the first payment for 25% of the completion, and the second payment for 50% of the completion.

Although the discount of this method is not as large as the first, but for home buyers, the risks they need to take are relatively small. Once the real estate is unfinished, or the price of the property plummets, buyers still have the opportunity to stop paying and survive, so as to reduce their losses.

Therefore, during last year's halving frenzy of property prices, many speculators who bought off-the-plan properties and just started paying, chose to default. This also directly led to a number of small and weak developers who fell into financial difficulties for a while. In the end, a few failed to survive and could only go bankrupt!

But when the property market is booming, speculating on properties is almost synonymous with instant wealth. For example, in Hong Kong in 1986, the real estate industry has ushered in the first wave of upsurge since it got out of the crisis of its future. At that time, Heng Fa Chuen, a large private housing estate in Chai Wan, Hong Kong Island, launched 448 units for sale in the first phase. A large number of buyers, including proxy queuers, speculators and corporate brokers, have been waiting in long queues, day and night, eight days before the opening.

Among them, six people from three generations of grandfathers and grandchildren of a family went to the line to line up, and finally successfully got five application forms for building purchases. As soon as the family got the application form, someone immediately gathered around to buy it. In the end, these blank home purchase application forms were bought by speculators at a price of HK$40,000 each, which means that this lucky family earned a net profit of HK$200,000 in just one week.

In fact, compared to the real speculators, they actually only earned a fraction. Because the house price in Xinghua Village was less than a month after the opening, the price of even the smallest unit has risen by at least 300,000. That is to say, the previous speculators spent 200,000 to acquire the 5 application forms, and they only need to wait a month after paying the money to buy the house, and they can reap at least 130 of the net profit.

It is precisely because real estate flipping can earn hundreds of thousands or even millions of income, so that the Hong Kong society has rapidly formed since the 1980s. People who work hard to earn money do not live as well as speculators who do not do their jobs properly. This huge sense of frustration is a huge harm to the whole society.

In the past, although some people of insight in Hong Kong have realized the hidden dangers that the speculative property market brings to Hong Kong society. However, the strong influence of the major real estate developers in Hong Kong has made these dissents unbearable. Real estate companies have always been the biggest advertising sponsors of major newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong.

Before almost every real estate is put on sale, developers will buy a full-page, full-page layout to advertise the sale. Therefore, in order not to offend these fund owners, the editors-in-chief of various newspapers and magazines are naturally reluctant to publish articles and opinions that are not conducive to the property market.

Because for real estate companies, the more the Hong Kong property market gets fired up, the more they earn. Therefore, many companies are even secretly cooperating with real estate speculators, holding back their stocks and reluctant to sell, further aggravating the panic of home buyers, and then increasing the selling price and grabbing more profits.

But this time is different. Li Xuan's TV station and newspapers bravely fired the first shot. Although the Oriental Group itself is not involved in the real estate industry, its strength is enough to compete with those large real estate companies in Hong Kong.

Just when other people were about to enjoy a big drama of "God of Wealth Li vs. Real Estate Guys", Li Jiacheng, known as the "Superman of Real Estate", suddenly accepted an exclusive interview with "The Hong Kong Economic Journal", and in the interview agreed with the "Hong Kong real estate market". The imbalance between supply and demand leads to irrational rise in property prices”.

The entire Hong Kong media industry was in an uproar. You must know that "Li Chaoren" is notoriously tough. In the past, a Hong Kong newspaper published a lace report that ridiculed Li Jiacheng. As a result, Li Ka-shing immediately instructed the Cheung Kong Group to withdraw the advertising contract and threaten to permanently block it. In the end, the newspaper had to bow to Li Jiacheng and fired the reporter who wrote the lace report there.

It is precisely because of such a foreshadowing that there are almost no negative reports about Li Jiacheng and Changshi Group in Hong Kong's newspapers and magazines. In contrast, Li Xuan is much more tolerant towards the media. As long as it is not malicious slander or slander, or the exposure of photos of his children and other prohibited behaviors, Li Xuan will laugh at other lace news surrounding him. Of course, if a reporter dared to break through the bottom line to provoke him, Li Xuan would definitely make him regret not changing careers earlier!

One Li Jiacheng is enough to make Hong Kong's media industry be careful. If all the real estate tycoons in Hong Kong unite, it will be enough to fight the "God of Fortune Li" for 300 rounds. You must know that shooting Hong Kong's housing prices is undoubtedly a pain in the foot of the entire Hong Kong real estate industry. Because the house always rises and sells better, and the more it falls, the harder it is to sell!

But what everyone didn't expect was that Li Jiacheng, the boss of Hong Kong's largest real estate company, unexpectedly went against the water, which made a war that should have hit the earth never started. Later, Guo Desheng of Sun Hung Kai, Li Zhaoji of Henderson, Bao Yugang of Wharf and others also spoke out successively, agreeing with Li Jiacheng's point of view.

At this time, even the most insensitive people have found that something is wrong. Where is the "God of Wealth Li" and the big real estate bigwigs ready to fight, they are teaming up to present a double-reed performance to the people of Hong Kong! Since even the owner of the real estate company admits that the housing prices in Hong Kong are too high, the editors and reporters of the major newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong are naturally no longer allowed to worry about this topic that they have been afraid to touch before.

The reason why Hong Kong's housing prices have risen so outrageously is because on the one hand, supply is less than demand, and on the other hand, because of hot money speculation. In fact, the reason for this problem is very easy to find. The answer to the problem is also very clear, that is, to build more houses, so that the supply and demand relationship can be restored to an equilibrium state, so that speculators have no room for speculation.

But to build a house, you must first have land, and the land needs to be approved from the Hong Kong government. As a result, the spearhead of public opinion gradually began to focus on the head of the Hong Kong government. In the past, scolding the government was not something that Hong Kong newspapers and magazines dared to do often.

You must know that Hong Kong is a colony. The Hong Kong Governor has far more power in Hong Kong than the British Prime Minister has in Downing Street. Every policy introduced by the British Prime Minister will be analyzed and refuted by Fleet Street under a microscope, and will often be misinterpreted and smeared by the opposition parties, protested by the public, and questioned by the parliament. The Governor of Hong Kong, on the other hand, speaks a single word in Hong Kong, and even the members of the Legislative-Legislative Council and the Executive-Administrative Council are appointed by him.

However, this situation began to change after Li's TV was acquired by Li Xuan and changed its name to Asia TV. With Li Xuan's request and support, ATV began to increase the proportion of current affairs news programs broadcast, and more and more spicy views were passed on to the eyes and ears of every Hong Kong citizen through ATV's screens.

No matter how democratic and efficient the government is, it is impossible to satisfy every citizen. To a certain extent, they are actually natural opposites. The Hong Kong government wants to promote the process of democratization in Hong Kong, which is giving ASCO an excellent opportunity to stand up for the people. It must be known that the more democratic a place is, the less scruples it will criticize the government.

What is the British Hong Kong government? It was a colonial government that was not subject to vote-and-vote monitoring and deterrence, and it was not easy to catch its pigtails. At the beginning, ATV still chose some less sensitive livelihood issues, and gradually began to deepen. In the debates again and again, the credibility of ATV gradually began to take root in the hearts of the people, and its image of what happened to the people of Hong Kong was gradually recognized.

With the example of ATV taking the lead in the rebellion, other media in Hong Kong have naturally become more and more bold. For example, in this debate on Hong Kong housing prices, the first target was the Hong Kong government, not other media of the ATV Group.

A tabloid first questioned the Hong Kong government's policy of selling land at high prices~www.readwn.com~ and took Singapore as an example to illustrate. The mainstream view in Hong Kong for a long time is that the revenue from the high-priced land sales of the Hong Kong government supports most of the government's expenditure. Without land sales revenue, Hong Kong would have to raise taxes substantially to maintain its balance of payments. This will weaken Hong Kong's competitiveness as a country and will be detrimental to the long-term prosperity of the export-oriented Hong Kong economy.

However, adjusting the secondary distribution of wealth through taxation is far more equitable than what the Hong Kong government is doing now. Most of the cost of land transfer fees is passed on to low- and middle-income earners, because their housing needs are the mainstream of the market. Controlling land auctions artificially creates an imbalance between supply and demand, allowing real estate developers, banks, etc., along with the Hong Kong government, to make big profits by shearing the wool of ordinary Hong Kong citizens.

And because of Hong Kong's low tax policy, the tax costs that the rich need to pay are far lower than those in the United States and Europe, which further exacerbates the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

And low tax rates may not fail to maintain the government’s balance of payments. Singapore is one of the countries with the lowest tax rates in the world. The land area of ​​Singapore is small, and the problem of small land and large population is even more serious than that of Hong Kong. However, through the "Home Ownership" program, the government has built a large number of low-cost public housing for citizens, making Singapore's per capita living conditions much better than Hong Kong's!

Among the "Four Asian Tigers", the situation in South Korea and Taiwan-Taiwan are relatively similar, while the conditions in Hong Kong and Singapore are relatively similar. Comparing two regions with very similar conditions in all respects can give people a more profound impact! Many Hong Kongers discovered for the first time that Singaporeans live far happier than themselves! (To be continued.)