Over the past few decades, real estate investment has always been a method of quick wealth creation in Hong Kong. If an investor had purchased a flat in his early age, he would easily re-mortgage his capital-gained properties to obtain extra capital to buy   the other investment properties. This simple wealth creation model is beneficial to many families.  In the past decades, a considerable number of wealthy families have been accumulating to the total amount of Hk $ 10 billion through this model.

By purchasing and holding, the landlords acquire extra capital by re-financing the capital gained properties and uphold their long-term positive outlook to the property market. Then, they repurchased again by the gained capital. Following this method and keeping it on, they could become 10 billion real estate tycoons sometime later. This get-rich-quick scheme is so straightforward that one real estate tycoon once said that his company never hired MBA graduates from prestigious universities.

From 2003 to 2021, the property market kept on ups and downs, but it rebounded from its lows finally. In recent years, a few real estate tycoons retired and delivered the corporate right of control to the next generation. In fact, most of the second or third generations of the riches were in their early thirties and they had never been tested in their careers. As a new leader of their families, they were eager to show their courage and vision after their promotion. So, most of them preferred to invest a lot of money in iconic projects regardless of positive investment return in the hope of making a name for themselves in the short period of time.

Due to the Covid-19, Hong Kong had been partially locked down for three years during 2020 to 2022. As a result, the rents and selling prices of commercial & shops properties have been declining. Their huge projects suffered significant paper losses. It is estimated that half of these companies governed by these new tycoons will become bankrupt before the end of this year.

Hong Kong's wealthy families are experiencing an economic transformation that has never been seen before, and the previous model of wealth created by real estate has been changing.  At a time when the way of generating wealth through the accumulation real estate investment is slowly fading away, what industries can replace it in the future will determine whether Hong Kong can successfully transform into a new prosperous city.