Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Embodied Property
The centrality of land ownership among Chinese and the Chinese overseas
was underscored in Michael Goldberg's early manifesto,
The Chinese
Connection: Getting Plugged in to Pacific Rim Real Estate, Trade and Capital
Markets
. Goldberg (1985) identified family, land, and education as inter-
secting institutional building blocks in Chinese social organization.
Interviews with 70 ethnic Chinese real estate investors and their agents, half
of them in Hong Kong and the rest in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and
Bangkok, showed that in the early 1980s western North America was already
the most favoured investment destination as part of portfolio diversification
in light of uncertain geopolitical futures. Smaller investors - though with
$5-$10 million in assets in 1983 these were still wealthy players - emphasized
secure and reliable, if low, returns over at least 10 years. Real estate was
certainly the preferred form of investment, easy to manage, safe, and not
requiring continuous supervision (Goldberg 1985). Investment locations
were commonly where family or friends lived, particularly where children
had studied at the university level; small, initial investments, such as hous-
ing during a child's education, might be a toehold for more substantial
investment later as visits increased information about opportunities. By the
late 1980s 50,000-60,000 Canadian university graduates were working in
Hong Kong and another 16,000-18,000 still studying in Canada, creating
what an Ernst and Whinney senior manager in the colony described as 'an
umbilical cord' connecting the two countries (
Chinatown News
1988a).
The overseas Chinese have an overdetermined disposition to real
estate, conditioned both by cultural tradition and also by economic his-
tory. Like Singapore, Hong Kong is a 'property state' where land devel-
opment plays a major role in constituting the local economy and society
(Haila 2000). Hong Kong's wealth in particular has been closely tied to
property development in an inhospitable terrain where easily developed
land is scarce. Only small land parcels are released by the government
each year and a few huge companies dominate the market. As a result,
inflation has been rampant and Hong Kong exemplifies a property-based
regime of accumulation, 'a society organized around real estate develop-
ment' (Tang 2008: 359). Property has been the largest sector by turnover
among companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, accounting
for between a quarter and a half of all market capitalization (Olds 2001;
Smart and Lee 2003). The power of the largest property conglomerates
is immense with economic concentration creating an oligopoly with high
entry costs and high prizes. Even in the depressed land market in 2002
Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings declared profits of HK$8.8 billion,
1
Sun Hung Kai Properties profits of HK$8.52 billion, Henderson Land
