HK becoming Shenzhen's backyard

Chinese property developers have turned their sights to Hong Kong's border districts as mainlanders from neighbouring boomtown Shenzhen consider parts of the former British colony as a more affordable long-term housing prospect.

The development plans are seen by some as a turning point, with buyers from what was once considered Hong Kong's cheaper industrial hinterland increasingly viewing of the global finance hub as Shenzhen's "backyard".While Hong Kong's property market remains red-hot, the city's international economic prestige has come under pressure after prolonged pro-democracy protests in 2019 and sweeping new national security laws last year.

Shenzhen's stature, in contrast, keeps growing. During a visit last October, President Xi Jinping touted it as "a model city", flagging plans to increase foreign investment. In just a few decades, the sleepy backwater on China's southern border has morphed into a tech hub of about 13 million, people towering over the fishponds and farmland in Hong Kong's less-developed north. Hundreds of thousands move there every year.

In Shenzhen's prime districts, such as Nanshan where tech giant Tencent 0700.HK is based, some house prices have already surpassed those in northern Hong Kong, which is one hour or more away from the expensive central business district. "Our long term view is Shenzhen will be the centre and Hong Kong the periphery," said an executive at a Chinese developer which bought land in the once less-appealing north, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to media.

"People who work in Shenzhen may choose to commute from Hong Kong where home prices will be cheaper."