Hong Kong, Home of Millionaires

It was just announced that there are 274,000 Millionaires in Hong Kong. Now there is always the problem of defining what a millionaire is. In Vietnam if you buy US$63.00 worth of local currency, the Dong, you will be a millionaire. In Hong Kong they defined it as having HK$1,000,000 (US$128,200) of liquid assets. The average is HK$4,000,000 (US$512,800). I assume they didn’t include real estate, because, if they did, just about anyone who owned a piece of property bigger than a parking space would be a millionaire.

In 1996, parking spaces were selling for as high as HK$2,500,000. I don’t know if Hong Kong parking space real estate has reached those dizzying heights since but I bet I could find lots of parking spaces that would sell for over HK$1,000,000. Central Area public lots charge at least HK$30.00 an hour with no maximum per day.

It was not surprising to discover that Hong Kong Island had the greatest concentration of millionaires - one in seven. Kowloon has only one in 35 millionaires, although I suspect the government has little idea of how much money many of the Kowloon side shop owners, triad members and street touts have.

I have no idea what this all means except I understand a little better why it costs so much more to live on Hong Kong Island than anywhere else in the territory. We’ve got too many millionaires.