Reborn in America, I'm serious about making money.

Property speculation in Hong Kong has a long history, influenced by its geographical environment and formed over three or four decades. In the 1940s and 50s, the area was a hub of economic activity and constantly threatened by war, resulting in very low land and property prices.

There was a reason why the price was low at the time: you could only buy an entire building, and later, individual units were sold. Also, there was a shortage of land and a large number of poor people coming to buy.

Property speculation began in the 1950s, marking the first real estate bubble.

In such an environment, the slightest disturbance could cause housing prices to rise immediately; and in 1991, the speculative capital that had made money in the island nation began to shift its focus to neighboring countries and regions.

They discovered that the model implemented in the island nation could be replicated elsewhere—it truly could be replicated. The Hong Kong property market surged, and the stock market rapidly formed a bubble in 1997, both fueled by foreign capital.

Now Zhang San needs to quickly sell off the properties he holds. Based on past analysis, those properties in Kowloon Peninsula have always experienced large fluctuations in value, and compared with properties on the main island, their ability to withstand risks is relatively weak.

From 1991 to early 1996, the value of properties in Kowloon Peninsula had doubled; naturally, it grew as fast as it could.

Although the price rose the fastest in 1997, it was sold the fastest in 1996; this is called not making money in the last wave, a famous quote from Li Ka-shing.

This exploits the psychology of retail investors who buy when prices are rising and not when they are falling. As for why they would sell houses at a low point, it's obviously to increase the panic among retail investors, or it could be to unload their shares as quickly as possible.

Real estate agencies in Kowloon have noticed something: recently, a number of properties have appeared, all of which are of lower quality but are priced very cheaply, as if they want to sell them quickly.

"Hey bro, there are dozens of apartments on the third and fourth floors that have recently appeared, and we're going to lose our leases this week."

The middle-aged man, nicknamed "Four-Eyes," heard what his apprentice said, took the documents, and looked at them carefully. Most of these properties were located in the Yuen Long and Tuen Mun areas of the New Territories.

"Are all these dozens of units from our store?"

"No, our target is only five sets, but I heard that some stores have already met their target."

Although these properties were on the third floor, they were on the lowest floor, with shops right below. So he felt they were acceptable and said, "Let's make a call. They have resources, and we have plenty of resources too."

These intermediaries have had clients over the years; upon hearing the master's words, many of them began to take action.

"Hey, Mrs. Liu, we have someone listing their property here. The price is very reasonable, five percent lower than similar properties..."

"Hey, Mr. Chen, we have someone listing this property. It's a great deal, really nice..."

The entire agency was focused on promoting these properties.

Within a day, someone was willing to buy these properties. To be honest, these properties were very cheap, 5% lower than the market price. These 400-500 square foot properties, which are now worth more than a million Hong Kong dollars, are very easy to find.

These real estate agents have connections with property speculators, especially when it comes to these bargain properties.

In three days, all eighty-three properties were sold. When Zhang San received the notification that HK$100 million had been deposited into his account, he felt that real estate speculation was still the best way to make money without lifting a finger.

With the first batch of properties available, the second batch began to be listed, which attracted the attention of many real estate agents. This must be a large-scale project, otherwise how could there be so many properties?

Back then, Zhang San sent people to canvass buildings. This canvassing was different from Zhang San's previous part-time job of going to each floor to promote and hand out flyers. That was visiting clients. But when he sent people to canvass buildings, he was buying buildings, whole buildings.

Among them, Hang Lung Properties owns the most buildings. In 1984, this real estate company lost not only HK$400 million in deposits but also a large sum of money due to the issue of development rights for properties above the subway station. Therefore, the local authorities are relatively conservative.

Zhang San's practice of buying buildings one by one with ample cash made Hang Lung Properties very happy. Although they didn't know why he was so bold in buying buildings, as businessmen, they didn't care about such things.

Zhang San owns more than a dozen buildings in Hang Lung Properties' projects alone.

"Four-Eyes Bro, this time it's the fifth to seventh floors. The information is the same as last time, so it should be the same owner. Also, the price is much higher than the third and fourth floors, but it's still 5% less than the market price."

Four-Eyes' eyes lit up with an idea. He said, "Go, call all the brothers over here."

Although I don't know why, I still did it. These five to seven-story residential buildings are 5% cheaper than the market price, but there are only eight units available, so I didn't feel much difference. Why make such a big deal out of it?

"I heard something, I don't know if you've heard it?"

Seeing that the four-eyed guy was being mysterious, the others became a little annoyed; this guy always loved to stir things up. Sensing their displeasure, he immediately said, "This year's top sellers bought those buildings themselves and only recently sold them, reportedly making nearly fifteen percent profit. I think we should all…"

"Four-Eyes, we've got it..."

"Yes, they can, and so can we, and the information shows that the location is excellent."

……

Since everyone agreed, there was no problem. Soon, the news that the eight houses had been sold reached headquarters, but they were a step too late and could only be ranked second.

The four-eyed guy was shrewd. He first had someone contact some real estate speculators to see how many units they wanted, selling them at market price, of course. They could make a 5% profit.

This sales effort left them with only three houses, which relieved a lot of their pressure. However, these three houses didn't last long either, as property prices rose again. This coincided with the Lihua Hotel announcing a reassessment of its assets.

It turns out that some people questioned the high stock price of Lihua Hotel, suspecting that it was manipulating the stock price.

Lihua Hotel immediately revalued its net assets. At that time, Lihua Hotel's stock price was HK$33.2. After the asset revaluation, the net assets were HK$36. This price immediately attracted a lot of attention.

The report shows that the fastest increase in net asset value was seen in the properties held by the company, which has sparked much speculation.

The second reason is that the Lihua Hotel raised funds through two rights issues to purchase a large number of properties. Once this news was exposed, it attracted many people to follow suit, and they also felt that the property prices in Hong Kong were rising.

Zhang San's properties also benefited from the Lihua Hotel incident, which made speculators in Hong Kong and those without homes start to get excited.