Marcus I don't live on Lamma anymore. No parking for my BMW.

This is really insulting mate ! If you really think Hong Kong is a shit hole, it's time for you to travel the world a little so you can realize how privileged you are to be here... Have you ever traveled far enough from your mother's kitchen to tell the difference between, say ,16 different countries in 20 years ? I have, and this is why I have chosen to drop my bags here and stay, by choice. But I guess if a BMW is all you can afford, you may not have enough to travel too much...
If you don't like it, if you're not happy here, why don't you go back to where you came from ?

EDC - You probably don't mean to use the intolerant "go back to where you came from" epithet in the way it comes across. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and they do not need to conform to someone else's way of thinking if they don't want to. Anyway, he's only winding you up.

Ive lived in a climate similar to the High Sierras and you can't beat it for fresh air, vibrant colors and feeling of space. You do get bored after a while with the pinball machine at the local gas station which forms the only entertainment for a hundred miles. So like many in Lamma, I have compromised. I enjoy occasional days of vibrant color, I can get that feeling of space if I hike to Tung O and its only 30 minutes to the city via a pleasant ferry ride. The rickety streets provide character against a backdrop of concrete and steel that is Central. I accept the downside of environmental degradation driven by greed, in the hope that as villagers get richer, even they will realise the importance of sustainable practices. As for the weekend hordes, they are reasonably well behaved but there are just too many of them. Thats OK though, because I have my own space to retreat to.

My landlord is going to nearly double my rent.

Bad enough tourism has become so big on Lamma that I fear for my inner peace. Sometimes there is very little difference between living in Mong Kok and living on Lamma. Even the rents become comparable.

I think this topic should be sealed and sunk into the Chinese Sea. Unless the Japanese come back, there won't be any significant drop in property prices.

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PARENTAL ADVISORY:
I say ***** a lot

I discovered I had a rat on my roof the other day. I think it might have been a pregnant female as it seemed to be trying to make a nest. I bought a trap in the village - the kind that traps the live animal inside. When I had caught the offending rodent I wondered what to do with it: a) kill it b) eat it c) let it go. I decided on the last option, not wishing to take the life of an innocent part of the biosphere, but where? Aha, a cunning plan hatched in my brain - let it go right next to those super-expensive new flats down near Powerstation Beach. Under cover of darkness, I watched the little animal scurry away into the rubble still left from the construction.

Just doing my little bit to keep property prices and rents down.

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My eyes are up here

Thanfully there are now a few flats to rent for under 10K. And some 2/Fl flats are going for 12k. These are snapped up pretty quickly though, as you can imagine. Still not great, but less asking prices that a few months ago.

There are always 'price hikes' with properties on HK and Lamma,... , and then the prices come down again. but this 'phase' has been going on SO LONG!!

As for the sales of the flats.. these are still ridiculous prices, even though they are not shifting. 3 years ago I moved from a 2/Fl, Sha Po Old flat, as my landlord put it on the market to sell for 1.8M. In the end he had to rent it, as it wouldn't sell as it was deemed too expensive. This was only three years ago. Now most are selling for over 3M.

Almost a year on, property price is still going up. A couple of transactions of 2/F+roof were over $4M. Now 2 G/F flat at our village were asking for $4M too - that's really insane!

Still better than paying 6 or 7 million for a 350sf ft walk up in Sheung Wan!

So then.

I always enjoy having the last word. So here we are almost 10 years later. I understand prices have more than doubled in the interim. I sold up in 2018 and was happy to get rid of the place as the developer/estate agent /landowner/village notary was taking liberties with my right of access.