Hong Kong property: time to buy or bail?

Like so many things in Hong Kong, be it the stock market or the dating scene, the city’s property market has a speculative feel to it, seemingly dominated by players who are out for a quick punt rather than with the intention to buy-and-hold. And, for those who live in Hong Kong, expensive rents and spiralling property prices are simply a part of life in the city, much like the smog.

But with job prospects within the financial industry looking gloomy the best gauge of this being the growing number of bankers that have decided to “retire” and growth in Asia slowing down, one would expect property prices to start...