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Property Search / Property Listings Portals Comparison Hong Kong

We have been looking for a new property to move into in the next month or so; we tried to go online to do some research and to shortlist a some properties and arrange viewings during weekends. Incidentally we are based in Hong Kong.

We went on SquareFoot (http://www.squarefoot.com.hk/), Spacious (http://www.spacious.hk), 28 House (https://www.28hou se.com) and Oneday (https://www.oneday.com.hk).

SquareFoot looked nice and the website looked generally professional but out of all of the properties (about 10) that we called up only 1 we found to be available and all of the others were out-of-date so we decided it was too much trouble. We then went to Spacious; the whole experience was dizzying; we were harassed on every page to send them our email address and the search feature didn’t really work so we didn’t even to get to the search results and gave up.

We thought the 2 best websites were Oneday and 28 House; both were easy to use and showed relevant listings. If the listings were expired, these two websites would clearly indicate that which we thought was quite good.

Here’s the screenshots for these 2 websites:-

Oneday.com.hk – Property Search Hong Kong

This is the one for Spacious:-

Hong Kong Property Prices continue to Rise

Hong Kong’s Property Prices have continued to rise every month this year. 5 years ago the prices were already at levels that would unnerve even those with mild vertigo; but now the prices have gone stratospheric and if it carries on on the current trajectory it will leave earth’s atmosphere and enter space – the unknown – the void – a point of no return and quite literally “out of this world”.

One can longer look at economic indices or co-efficients to try to predict where the markets will go; where the markets go are now controlled entirely by central banks – if they decide to print more money inflation will continue, the wealth gap will continue to widen and the world will continue to pull apart. If they decide to increase interest rates and cease their expansionary monetary policy we will enter a recession and the property bubble in Hong Kong (and other parts of the world) will just explode.

So, the only chance that the crazyiness we are going through now where inflation has been double digit every year since 2008 will cease is if there is a revolution whereby those central bankers are removed from office and exterminated. The world is not at that juncture yet but we are moving towards it faster than most people would like to believe. All the threats about “tapering” – as in reducing the balance sheet and giving the money printing regime a break will not happen; why – because printing money is like a drug – not a soft drug like marajuana but a much harder one like heroin – one that will require serious cold turkey to kick. The addiction is just too great. The impartial observer will notice that the threat of tapering has been motioned regularly since 2013 yet money supply keeps expanding year on year; we have been threatened for 4 years already yet the exact opposite has happened so I am pretty sure these threats are hollow.

QE – expansionary monetary policy- property prices to keep going up

I predict that money printing in the US will continue for the next 3 years at least – until people start to get violent and start assassinating central bankers and bankers in general.

When US prints money, China prints just as quickly – the difference being that China does not have to make public anything and even when they do the figures are not reliable. So in many of China’s smaller cities, property prices have risen as much as 50% in 2017 alone and the debt bubble is growing fast; and the traditional mentality of saving for the rainy days is changing to leveraging as much as you can.

Although, I worry about the stability of the world and Hong Kong greatly, I think money printing will continue in the US and around the world for at least another 3 years. The only thing that will put an end to it is some kind of revolution – therefore I predict that property prices will continue to rise for the next 3 years and when this bubble does burst it will be the biggest downturn ever resulting in a catastrophe – ie. a global war. The other thing that could put an end to the insane rise in property prices is a global epidemic, a meteorite hitting us, Kim Jong Un firing a missile that hits the US; in the absence of some of kind of force majeure the music will continue to play to the Fed’s tune.

Hong Kong Independence | Why Not?

I was never a proponent of Hong Kong independence. I think being part of China offers greater stability to Hong Kong.

However, with all of the recent political developments; with the abduction of Lee Bo the bookseller on Hong Kong soil and the abduction of the billionaire Xiao Jianhua at the Four Seasons Hotel I think we should reconsider whether the benefits outweight the drawbacks. The Communist Party stole the land from land owners in 1949 so their legitimacy to governing China is tenuous; the party is riddled with corruption and openly promotes inequality.

Hong Kong has declined with every passing year since the handover; socially mobility completely wiped out, wealth gap at an all time high, rule of law is getting eroded, the economic significance of the special administrative region ever declining. Freedom of speech is being eroded.

So, with independence, there are several issues to iron out before we tread down this path:-

1) Water supply – at the moment supplied by China at a commercially expensive rate; we should tender out this contract and re-visit whether we should buy water from other countries and have the water shipped? Desalination is another option. We should also continue to build reservoirs like the we had up until 1964.
2) Armed Forces – this could be outsourced like most things; tender out the requirements and engage the country/company that provides the best service with the lowest cost
3) Electricity – some of our power is being provided by China at the moment; we can increase production and not buy from China

The above form the problems, the below will be the fun part:-

1) Control immigration so that we do not allow 150 new immigrants from the mainland China to gain citizenship
2) Depeg from the US dollar and peg to a basket of currencies so that we can float the Hong Kong dollar freely
3) Change the political structure so that the chief executive is not being elected by an Election Committee of 1,400 cronies instead we implement universal suffrage and allow one man one vote
4) We can increase the powers of the Hong Kong Monetary Authorities to adjust interest rates based on how the economy is doing

Wouldn’t the above be great? No longer would we have to suffer the general bad manners of mainlanders; no longer would we be unable to protect our citizens; no longer would we have to waste vast sums of money building useless infrastructure projects to China that benefit only a few cadres.

Undersecretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin’s Son Commits Suicide

Karma, for those who believe it, is a simple equation that explains how the universe functions – where there is cause there is effect. Each and one of us are governed by the laws of Karma.

For a mishap to happen to somebody, that person would have done something in the past to deserve it. If I dedicate my life to helping others, sharing and spreading positivity to the world good things will come back to me and the same works in reverse. When something extraordinarily good happens to a person and you attribute their success or good fortunes to the great work that they have done it is socially acceptable. However when something extraordinarily bad happens to a person and you attribute their misfortunes to bad deeds that they have must committed it is socially a taboo.

The students at Chinese University Hong Kong have expressed publicly the social taboo that should have been kept to themselves; even though what they were saying effectively implied that for such a misfortune to be bestowed upon somebody – that somebody must have committed some grievious deed to deserve such a retribution – i.e. losing a son. Regardless of what happened – only she will know what she did and it is not for outsiders to speculate.

Watch out for Silver + Gold to Shoot up | U$30/oz by end of 2017

M1 has expanded by 400% since 2008. The federal reserve along with the American bankers have effectively caused all the grief around the world; what surprises me is that not a single banker has been jailed. Such is the injustice of the world.

99% of the money that the Fed printed went to banks like JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and the usual suspects… All the fines that the federal reserve imposed on the banks over the last few years were all just a big show because the banks paid them with the very printed money that the Fed had just given them…. In order for this cosy setup to continue working, an allocation of the printed money went into the manipulation of the rate of inflation. Why? Because under normal circumstances if you print money inflation goes up. So how did the Fed manipulate the rate of inflation?

The posted inflation rate in the US for 2016 was 2.1%; so how could inflation be at 2.1% when money supply had expanded by 400% over the last 9 years. Simple. The calculation for the rate of inflation is inherently flawed because it is based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures the price changes of a number of goods and services bought by consumers. Unfortuatenly, this figure can be manipulated by artificially lowering the price of certain commodities so as to give people the illusion that inflation was under control.

Keeping oil and commodities like gold and silver artificially low has allowed the Fed and its cronies to continue their cosy arrangement of printing money and screwing everyone over whilst polarising the world’s wealth. In 2009, JP Morgan shorted the silver market with US$ 20 billion and suddenly a massive drop in the silver price was evidenced even though the consumption of silver remained constant throughout the period.

The recent hoolaballoo with North Korea has added a twist to the Fed’s grand plan because suddenly people are flocking to gold and silver and this is our chance (“us” the people) to take a swipe at the establishment by buying physical silver and gold so that suddenly the shorts will be caught with their pants down by precipitating a massive shortage of physical silver and gold.

If every person in China just bought 1 oz of silver; the federal reserve and the US monetary system would blow up. That is all it takes.

I will start by buying 100oz tomorrow as I see silver finising the year at US$30/oz.

Hong Kong’s 20th year anniversary – What do the locals think?

I am writing this to give an account of how things have changed over the last 20 years since Hong Kong became part of China.

In short, from the perspective of a local, I have seen a steady decline year on year since the handover so there is nothing for me to celebrate.

Job Opportunities are scarcer
Wealth gap at an all time high
Zero upward-mobility socially
Property prices so unaffordable that first-time buyers can forget it
Mainlanders are taking resource from here including university places, hospital beds, etc
A meltdown of the rule of law with mainland agents coming to Hong Kong to abduct people (Lee Bo and the billionaire recently)
Erosion of our culture and values
Erosion of freedom of speech

The Communist Party has no experience governing an International city and they are running Hong Kong into the ground.

So for me, we should look back at how great things were 20 years ago rather than celebrate how bad things have become 20 years on.

Mid-Levels (Robinson Road + Conduit Road) – What’s it like?

Having lived on Robinson Road for the last 15 years which has served me well; I have to say it is no longer the place to be.

There is so much construction there right now; it is almost impossible to get a good night’s sleep.

The Hong Kong Government issues licenses for the developers to start construction at 7a.m. every morning except Sunday and you can be guaranteed at least 4-5 construction sites on the go at any given time. At the premium rate that you pay for rent; you are probably better off in some other location like Sai Ying Pun, Kennedy Town or Pok Fu Lam.

The noise from any one construction site is usually so loud that any building within a 500m radius will be affected.

What I can’t understand is why the government is allowed to issue licenses for construction at 7a.m.

Hong Kong will NEVER be a technology hub!

The main reasons why Hong Kong will NEVER be a technology hub is because:-

The government has no idea what innovation and technology is
The government penalises entrepreneurs with the high-admin cost and low return scheme called MPF
The government technology fund http://www.itc.gov.hk/ is a complete waste of time

I just spoke to two people at the Innovation and Technology Fund and asked what they could do for a Hong Kong company who has built a cutting-edge App and Internet platform in 11 languages and is looking for funding to push the product globally. Both said that the government could not help. They were both typical bureaucrats working in government departments answering the telephone and were just dying to get me to hang up and call another department. They tried to sound helpful but didn’t know what they were talking about. The woman on +852 3655 5847 (The enterprise support scheme) even hung up on me when I asked her to name just one successful project that they had funded – I guess 5:20p.m. on a Monday afternoon was biting into her personal time.

You will also notice from their website that there are some people who get funding for about 10-20 projects, such as Henry Chun-bun CHAN wh0 have obviously worked out how to work the system. HK$ 11 billion has been spent and what results can we see? When will Hong Kong develop a global brand like Facebook or whats app or Air B’n’B.

For a city who’s collective mindset is measured in HK$ / sq ft. return – only a disaster in Hong Kong could precipitate innovation; in the absence of that, the property-based mindset will prevail.

South China Morning Post – The new Communist Party Mouthpiece

Since Jack Ma bought South China Morning Post (SCMP), the newspaper has become a communist party mouthpiece.

In response to the article:-

“Beijing official sets anti-independence limits for Hong Kong as thousands march against government push to disqualify lawmakers”

And the comment got censored immediately.

China has absolutely no idea how to run Hong Kong, they screw the chief executive by stabbing him in the back by overriding the city’s law enforcement and abducting a bookseller and then expects the chief executive to stay silent after the fact. Did you see how CY Leung’s popularity plummet after that? And then they fire him because he was not able to garner popular support.

The communist party is like a cancer on this earth. It is only a matter of time before they will deposed.

JIJIS.ORG.HK – New site is always down

The jijis.org.hk’s new website which is for students to look for jobs and for employers to find candidates. Recently, we put up 2 ads on this platform and we have not received a single enquiry, in previous years we would receive around 30 – 40 applications per job ad.

Each time I visit the student portal www.jijis.org.hk I find that the website is offline and when I do a screenshot for their support they ask me to check my internet connection a day later.

jijis.org.hk screenshot

So, we have decided that after having written to them 3-4 times to them and received a standard reply, we would stop wasting our time with this portal as it is obviously dysfunctional.

We have also setup a website monitoring service on it so that we can see when it is online and when it is not.

We will post up this information later so stay tuned!