Hong Kong's perfect real estate market

Hong Kong is perhaps most infamous for its high-priced and cramped real estate. And its infamy is well-deserved. Prices are high, quality is low, and, despite that things move very fast. A side effect of Hong Kong's high real estate prices are the efficiency with which the market prices things.

Millions of people are hunting for bargins within a housing stock that's artificially constrained by government land policy and as such no bargin goes unnoticed for long. Opportunities for arbitrage are few and far between.

This makes price a strong indicator of the tradeoffs that a property forces on occupier. That flat that's slightly cheaper than all the others? That's because it has poor sunlight. That estate that's got lots of open space, bigger flats and a cheaper per unit price? That's because you have to take an expensive ferry to get there and, btw, everything in stores there costs 20% more.

The only way to win is to figure out what metrics matter most to you and compromise on the things that don't.