Hong Kong
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In land-starved Hong Kong a tiny, no-frills residence removed from the metropolis middle can eat up half of a month-to-month wage. But for daring renters there’s one positive means to get a low cost: select a property haunted by a homicide or unnatural dying.
The houses, typically flats inside the metropolis’s tall residential buildings, strike a lot worry amongst residents that anybody keen to live there can negotiate hefty reductions in one of the world’s most expensive property markets.
“The discount could be massive and many people who don’t mind can rent these places below the market price” mentioned Ng Goon-lau, an investor so well-known for proudly owning dozens of these flats that native media has dubbed him the “King of Haunted Houses.”
Lists of haunted houses could be discovered on most property agent web sites. They are locations the place an unnatural or untimely dying has occurred and embody the scenes of some of the metropolis’s most ugly murders.
Property-listing web site Spacious.hk compiles a 92-page checklist that dates again to 2006, that includes particulars of how every dying occurred. In a metropolis identified for its tightly packed residential towers, many entries state the trigger of dying as “fell from height.”
Other actual property businesses offer advice about how to establish spooky flats, together with checking dying certificates and quizzing potential neighbors about the residence’s historical past.
In a metropolis closely influenced by Buddhism and Taoism, dwelling in flats related to ghastly deaths typically stokes worry of dangerous fortune.
Feng shui grasp Andrew Kwan mentioned folks imagine that those that died a tragic dying could not get closure. “Their hatred may stay. (Their spirit) may remain in the apartment,” he mentioned.
The worry of a curse has created a distinctive marketplace for bargain-hunting buyers and tenants who’re pleased to attempt their luck.
Property costs plunge by a median of 20% after they’re labelled haunted – and up to 34% in the occasion of a homicide, in accordance to Utpal Bhattacharya, Chair Professor of Finance at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who led a examine on the phenomena in 2019.
A ripple impact spreads to properties on the identical flooring, which frequently see their worth drop 10%, and even flats in the identical constructing can fall 7%, he informed NCS.
“The belief in Feng Shui is quite strong among Chinese, and the population in Hong Kong is about 94% Chinese…implying that most buyers have a large distaste for haunted houses,” mentioned Bhattacharya.
Disclosure is just not required underneath Hong Kong regulation, however regulators demand property brokers present correct details about any dying upon inquiry.
These particulars matter as a result of the circumstance of the dying – from accidents to malicious murders – may decide the measurement of the low cost.
In dying, Ng, a veteran investor in his 70s, sees alternative. He scoops up the so-called haunted houses from house owners who’re determined to promote, and leases them out at up to 30% beneath market value.
“Many people don’t actually have a strong feeling against hung zaats. It all comes down to the extent of the discount,” he mentioned.
Still, the prevailing temper of the metropolis is to keep away – or at the very least be cautious.
That particularly applies to properties linked to some of the metropolis’s most chilling homicide instances.
In 2014, British banker Rurik Jutting brutally murdered two Indonesian women and hid one of the our bodies in a suitcase in his upscale residence in J Residence in Wan Chai, a well-liked nightlife district in Hong Kong.
As ugly particulars of the murders emerged, the worth of the one-bedroom residence the place they occurred was estimated to have plunged from $1.16 million to $770,000, with its $3,740 month-to-month rental halved, Bloomberg reported at the time.
Another unit in Tsuen Wan, a residential neighborhood in the New Territories, was bought at a loss of $142,000, shaving 40% off the authentic value, in accordance to native information stories. The unit was the scene of a money-fueled homicide in 2016 involving three males, who killed their good friend and sealed his physique in a slab of cement saved in the unit.
Owners of the properties are nearly sure to lose cash. It’s very tough to discover a purchaser for houses listed as a haunted home – partly as a result of banks additionally have a tendency to keep away.
Eric Pau, Senior Associate Director at Ricacorp Properties, a main actual property agency in Hong Kong, informed NCS many banks view them as high-risk investments. “In most cases, mortgages will not be granted,” he mentioned.
But he mentioned others see it as a chance. As an investor, Ng’s playbook is to be selective about the sort of “haunted homes” he buys.
He tries to keep away from properties related to ugly murders as a lot as doable and appears for locations the place the dying occurred a while in the past.
“Fortunately, some ‘haunted houses’ have been around for so long that people have forgotten about what happened,” he mentioned. “The main thing is to make people not to feel sad and unpleasant.”
But like all investments, there are dangers, and Ng has had some spooky failures.
One time, he mentioned, a tenant broke the lease simply days after transferring in. The tenant by no means informed him why, so he turned to the neighbors.
“The neighbors told me that the three-year-old son of this tenant opened a very difficult book in the middle of the night and read it attentively,” Ng recalled being informed.
“He thought his son was possessed,” he mentioned.