Property investors turn to M’sia, Singapore amid HK unrest, Latest Business News - The New Paper
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Property investors turn to M’sia, Singapore amid HK unrest

This article is more than 12 months old

KUALA LUMPUR: From luxury Singapore apartments to Malaysian seafront condos, Hong Kong investors are shifting cash into South-east Asian property, demoralised by increasingly violent protests as well as the China-US trade war.

Hong Kong businessman Peter Ng, 48, bought a condominium in Penang after the protests erupted.

"The instability was a catalyst for me," the stock market and property investor said, adding he was worried about long-term damage to the Hong Kong economy. "Investors will always look at things like that, political stability."

The Malaysia site of South-east Asian real estate platform Property Guru has seen a 35 per cent increase in visits from Hong Kong, according to its CEO Hari Krishnan.

Hong Kong's property market is one of the least affordable in the world with sky-high prices fuelled, in part, by wealthy mainlanders snapping up investments.

But now mainland Chinese are opting for rival financial hub Singapore as a result of the protests and the US-China trade war, according to observers.

"The protests in Hong Kong have made some of the (mainland Chinese) based there... (more concerned) about investing in Hong Kong real estate, so they carry that investment to Singapore," said Mr Alan Cheong, executive director of the research and consultancy team at Savills. - AFP

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