Hong Kong’s famously eye-watering property prices are again probing new highs, fueled by an influx of mainland buyers undeterred by the city’s political turmoil, the COVID-19 pandemic or the recent wave of emigration.

As many as 35% of buyers for the latest residential project at the Wong Chuk Hang metro station on Hong Kong Island are believed to be from mainland China, based on how they spelled their names. Those transactions had a total value of almost HK$4.5 billion (US$580 million).

By some measures, Hong Kong is the world’s least affordable housing market. Last year, the average price of a home in the city of 7.8 million people was US$1.25 million — or more than 23 times the median annual household income, based on the latest government data.

As of June 9, 325 of the more than 1,400 purchase agreements reached apparently were by mainland Chinese buyers. One woman bought 10 apartments at the Wong Chuk Hang project after having purchased a HK$5 million home in Mount Nicholson, one of the city’s best-off residential areas.

Migrants from mainland China have once again become a force in the city’s property market, said Louis Chan, chief executive of the residential division at Centaline Property Agency.

Such buyers typically buy up mid-priced properties ranging between HK$10 million and HK$20 million, especially luxury homes, Chan said. Luxury properties in Hong Kong are defined as those of at least 1,000 square feet (93 square meters).

The property market might heat up even further once the city’s economy shakes off the impact of the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, said Eric Tso, the senior vice president for mReferral Mortgage Brokerage Services.

The yearly supply of private housing is not able to keep up with the increase in the number of immigrants from mainland China, said stock and property market analyst Eddie Lam. “Those people will become Hong Kong’s largest purchasing power,” he said.

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