Half a billion middle-class and millions of poor people

Earlier, Citibank published the “Hong Kong Multi-Millionaire Survey Report 2018”, which pointed out that there are currently 511,000 people in Hong Kong holding 10 million or more net assets. In other words, 6.8 out of every 100 Hong Kong people are multi-millionaires. Another report by Citibank in March last year also stated that if the fixed assets such as real estate were excluded, the population with more than 1 million working capitals would reach 1.02 million. In other words, every 7 Hong Kong people had a millionaire. The amazing thing is that this number is increasing at a rate of around 15% per year. Since Hong Kong is so rich and rich, why do we not feel the joy of this wealth?

If we take a closer look at the data in the report, we can find out the “mystery”. Also in the survey report released last year, Citibank pointed out that these multi-millionaires have an average of 1.9 properties, and their asset allocation ratio is about 75% of fixed assets vs. 25% of current assets. If a multi-millionaire is defined as a population with only 10 million current assets, Hong Kong’s multi-millionaire population will plummet to only 69,000, which is more than 85% less than the net asset calculation. It is the floor.

I still remember that some financial advices many years ago pointed out that it would take about 10 million to live a safe retirement. But now if you don’t even have a floor, is it worth 10 million to rent a room in your retirement? The unit is still unknown. At present, in Hong Kong, about 10 million people can only buy one or five hundred and six hundred properties. If you want to choose some new buildings in the Wang District, it is even more exaggerated to buy a small unit that is a little bigger than the nano building. On the contrary, as long as you provide a slightly more similar property, you can basically become a multi-millionaire.

This phenomenon of “rich wealth” caused by the asset bubble has distorted many of our past ideas, the most obvious of which is the definition of the middle class. In all fairness, in the 1980s and 1990s, if a family could buy four or five hundred self-occupied units, the income would have to go to travel, or let the children go to the interest class. The identity of the middle class is basically beyond doubt. However, in a network program of “AM730” (three middle-class parties), some netizens commented that in Hong Kong, if there is no more than 50 million assets, they are not qualified to claim to be middle-class. In other words, Hong Kong is only about a fraction of a percent of the population. Qualified. This scarce population ratio can only be described as “upper class.”

The idea of ​​”having more than 50 million assets = middle class” is not lacking in support. Many Hong Kong people have their ideal life, such as having to have a foreign domestic helper to take care of their children, to enroll in direct-funded or international schools, to travel to and from private cars, to travel to Europe twice a year, and to link the definition of the middle class. It is because for more and more Hong Kong people, the original life that is within reach is now out of reach. Since it is all fantasy, it would be better to imagine the identity of the middle class more dreamy, then you can comfort yourself. It is not my fault to be able to advance to the middle class, but it is too difficult to reach the conditions.

The asset bubble exacerbates the struggle of generations

Another problem with the asset bubble is that it has intensified the struggle of generations. According to the report, the average age of Hong Kong’s multi-millionaires is 58 years old, and more than half are unemployed, and most of them hold properties. Although it may take quite a while to accumulate this level of property, it is undeniable that the current “getting on the train” is much more difficult than the previous generation. Now the newspaper publishes the story of the “upstairs struggle” of young people. At the end, there must be a good father or a good father who is playing this first period. Why is it so funny? The media is happy to repeat it. Report? The reason is because if there is no good father to pay the first issue, the story will become unreliable, because the first day of the sky is normal and no one can save it at a young age. At present, the mortgage ceiling of 600 to 10 million buildings is 60% of the property price, and the upper limit is 5 million yuan. More than 10 million yuan can only achieve 50% of the mortgage, and the first phase of the huge amount of 5 million or 6 million, even for families with annual salary of over one million. It is not easy to get it. Fortunately, it is still necessary to rely on parents to raise contingency. If you can’t raise it, you can only start from the old and remote units or nano-buildings, and even overlook the building because of the missed opportunity.

If a family with more than one million annual salary has difficulty in buying a home, it is easy to explain why the population growth of Hong Kong with a liquid assets of more than HK$1 million is so alarming – when the threshold for buying a building is getting higher and higher, “no shell.” The current assets of a family are naturally more and more, because they simply cannot convert cash stocks into fixed assets. Therefore, the surge in the number of “millionaires” is not only a kind of affluence, but a kind of indulgence in the quality of life. Therefore, there are currently millions of net worth in Hong Kong. The threshold of the middle class is naturally not reached. The actual situation. Many previous generations don’t understand why the new generation doesn’t spend a lot of patience waiting for home buying opportunities; Liu Minghao bitterly advises young people to travel to Japan less times and change the phone number to buy a house, but they don’t understand why they are being laughed at. This is precisely because the more we have to vent the money, the more we have to catch up with the downfall of buying the first phase of the building. Therefore, we must pursue the “small fortune” through travel, shopping and even “food good west”.