Post-Covid, life has not yet reached the new normal, according to this writer.

Some readers will know that I relocated from Hong Kong to the UK in early March. I have to say that it was a traumatic experience, not to put too fine a point on it. There are two main reasons why it was so. First, I have spent my entire working life in Asia, mostly in Hong Kong, but also in Singapore and the Philippines, thus making departure something of an emotional wrench, leaving behind many friends and indeed family. Second, leaving at what seems now with hindsight to have been ‘peak Covid’ made the experience far more stressful than it needed to be. The details are unimportant, and in the greater scheme of things, are de minimis when one reads the news from Ukraine. So, like a frog which has escaped boiling water, I look back now at Hong Kong with a new perspective and wonder how the city will fare.

Let’s start with the property market outlook, which is as common a dinner party topic in Hong Kong as it is in London. One thing I have long learned is not to bet against the Hong Kong property market, however dire the circumstances seem to be. For those unaware, Hong Kong home prices more than doubled over the past 10 years, reaching an all-time high in September 2021. Not that this is exactly something to boast about, since it makes Hong Kong the most unaffordable housing market in the world and glosses over some uncomfortable home truths about the number of people living below the poverty line and the lengthy waiting lists for public housing.