This page doesn't forecast prices or recommend areas. It does two things: explains why to leave the rental market as soon as you can, and where the real cost of a house comes from.
Watch first. Read on below to go deeper.
House · coming soon100 ÷ rental yield = the number of years of rent that add up to the price of the whole house. Look up the yield in your own area, put it in, and you have your own number.
A tenant looks month by month: what is the rent, can I afford it. An owner looks twenty years ahead. The same money: one sees spending, the other sees progress.
In the UK it's the other way round: materials aren't necessarily expensive, people are. This is what Hong Kong families most often underestimate when they arrive.
Within the same catchment area, a terrace and a semi-detached rent for about the same, but the semi costs 20–30% more. Rent is the market's price for living there. The extras can be worth it, but know what you're buying.
When you buy into a catchment, you're not buying the school building. You're buying the neighbours.
Keeping a house in good shape is the real cost behind it: the yearly maintenance, which improvements add value, the long-term cost of leasehold, insurance.
Rental yield sums, UK repair costs, terrace versus semi, public school data, and what a year of owning a house looks like. (Chinese)
Read the full guide (Chinese)This site is personal knowledge sharing: general information and discussion of ideas. It is not mortgage advice, property advice or personal financial advice. Property prices can go down as well as up; rental yields are rough estimates and vary widely. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage secured on it. Costs and rules were checked from public sources in August 2026 and may change. For personal advice, speak to a regulated professional.