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Review of Finance Vol. 27 No. 6 2023

A Tale of Two Cities: Mainland Chinese Buyers in the Hong Kong Housing Market

Yi Fan1; Maggie Hu2; Wayne Xinwei Wan3; Zhenping Wang4

1 Department of Real Estate, National University of Singapore, Singapore · 2 School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, P.R.China · 3 Department of Banking and Finance, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia · 4 State of Wisconsin Investment Board, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

open access

Abstract

This article examines the impact of mainland Chinese buyers in the Hong Kong housing market, using complete transaction records between 2001 and 2017. We find that mainland buyers pay an average price premium of 1.4% compared with locals. The premiums are estimated to be 3.5% for large-sized luxury units and 1.6% for homes in central locations. The mechanisms that underlie the price premiums include a hedging effect, residential sorting, and information barriers, of which the hedging motive has the strongest impact. Mainland buyers’ price premiums rise significantly when the Chinese currency depreciates or China Economic Policy Uncertainty increases. Our study sheds light on the impact and mechanism of the ““China shock” on the global housing markets.

DOI
10.1093/rof/rfad006
Volume
27
Issue
6
Pages
2205-2232
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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