The rise of single women in Hong Kong and their relationship with the price of housing

January 2, 2020

El País

Ana Salva
Barcelona 2 JAN 2020 - 01:13 CET

Last October, one of the most commented real estate transactions in recent years happened in Hong Kong: a single parking space of 13.5 square meters sold for $969,000, about 870,000 euros, becoming the most expensive place in the world where to park a vehicle. This British excolonia has reached exorbitant prices in recent years. In fact, it is the most expensive city to buy a home, with an average price of 1,091,665 euros. And women have something to do with this increase in real estate prices.

Researchers Igor Vojnovic and Minting Ye, from Michigan State University, wanted to understand why the Hong Kong real estate market has dramatically soared, and after studying this trend for four years, they showed something quite ignored up to this point: Women have played "a surprising role" and little studied in the transformation of the city, because they now have better salaries and place a higher demand on housing units, which puts upward pressure on real estate prices. Their study, published in 2018 in The Conversation, focuses on Hong Kong, but in Vojnovic's words, "there are reasons to think that something similar is happening in other cities."…

Read the complete article on the El País website.