|
The Seven Deadly Sins
What to consider when buying property in Hong Kong
| Text : Neil Runcieman | Photo : www.thinkstockphotos.com |
There is excellent advice available to local property buyers free of charge: you can get it from agents, on the internet, at banks, and from talking with your friends. ‘Use it!’ is the main conclusion of this article.
In fact, with all that information at our disposal (HSBC’s online tools suite in the Mortgage section of its website and the comprehensive step-by-step buyer’s guidelines at www.squarefoot.com.hk are a good starting point for English speakers), there is only one reason left why anyone would make a bad call when it comes to buying a home: we’re human.
And so, with that in mind, we offer here a brief aide-memoire recapitulating our principal human frailties as they have been defined and handed down to us through the ages, and suggesting how they might come into play in Hong Kong when it comes to exchanging cash for concrete.
Superbia (Pride and Vainglory)
Always listed first and judged the most serious of the seven deadly sins despite the universal contempt we hold for anyone who has none, Pride in this sense is defined as the need to prove oneself more important than others, such as buying an apartment that is bigger, fancier and pricier not only than everyone you know, but also than you can afford, leading to much wailing and gnashing of teeth when interest rates rise or stock prices fall.
Vainglory, the sin of unjustified boasting, also gets a mention here. We thank Pope Gregory I for addling this one in 590 AD, possibly after spending an entire evening listening to a returning delegation from distant Cathay telling him how much money they had made flipping hermit cottages on a bare rock called Hong Kong.
Ira (Wrath)
Wrath is defined here as denial of the truth and impatience with procedure, leading in extreme forms to a desire for vengeance and a wish to do evil to others.
Is there anyone among us who has ever bought property and not experienced Wrath to the full? Leaving aside the transient satisfaction of at least thinking about the evil you want to do to various others standing between you and a fair contract, it is worth remembering that a) you can’t enjoy your home when you’re in prison, and b) the same procedures that drive you to distraction will protect you manfully if you make them your friend.
Luxuria (Extravagance)
Yes, it was Extravagance before it became Lust, and for the purposes of buying property, let’s keep it that way!
Hong Kong has a worldwide reputation for its love of luxury, and no one is suggesting that local residents should cast aside their beautiful things and a hair shirt (unless Agnes B launches a Hair Shirt range, of course).
Extravagance in property-buying means being tempted by eye candy: wow-factor extras that have little intrinsic value but deflect the attention very ably from what you should be focusing on. Yes, the gold-tapped en-suite whirlpool bath is brilliant, but if it’s just made you forget about the all-night karaoke bar downstairs and the empty site opposite with foundations just laid for an abattoir, then it’s time to go back to the checklist notes.
Gula (Gluttony)
Like Pride and Extravagance, another sin of excess — yet in property, think not so much of wanting to eat too much and too often, as eating what’s bad for you too soon.
The glutton lacks self-control and is a slave to his appetite for immediate gratification. Take any element of that to the property market and you will want to buy quickly just to satisfy the urge to buy something.
In Hong Kong, it’s true, buying fast can be an advantage, while being patient and fastidious can cost you dear when there’s a boom on and the added temptation to the glutton of scarcity. Yet when the market levels out and properties are valued again for their intrinsic value, the glutton will be the one with indigestion.
Acedia: (Sloth)
Neglect of duty of care, not doing what needs to be done, and failing to make use of one’s gifts or talents are at the end of the accuser’s finger here, and there’s no doubt that buying somewhere to live favours the high-energy demographic.
Fortunately, Hong Kong is not the sloth’s natural environment, but can we at least use this to reiterate that the Devil really is in all the details, and that overlooking one or suffering from process fatigue can have extremely expensive and even life-changing consequences.
Tenacity, perseverance, dogged insistence — call it what you will: it doesn’t win too many friends, but it does win.
Avaritia (Greed)
Yet more excess, this time with the emphasis on a rapacious desire for personal gain at any cost, opening the door to bribery, trickery, manipulation of relationships, personal betrayal, fraud and — err, hang on a minute — well, thank heavens we don’t have anything like that in the property market round here. Just be careful when you choose your feng shui master. Let’s move on.
Invidia (Envy)
You can grind your teeth to a pulp overnight fretting that you didn’t get into the market when the lucky so-and-so you just met did — it won’t change anything. Look back for information only in property. Look forward to being the lucky so-and-so someone else meets once you’ve used your information well.
Click here for more on home decorating
|
