Don’t borrow cash to the limit: 32 y/o woman faces HK$60K/month housing loans after real estate gamble backfires

HONG KONG: A 32-year-old woman investor from Hong Kong is now struggling to pay HK$60,000 monthly to cover her housing loans after a decline in Hong Kong’s property market, wiping more than HK$10 million off her portfolio. Known only as Charlene, she advised others not to “borrow to the limit”.

According to Dimsum Daily Hong Kong, which cited her interview on a Now TV programme, Charlene once held a multi-million five-property portfolio in her late twenties, with homes in Shenzhen, Macao, and Hong Kong. Now, three of those properties are in negative equity, leaving her with over HK$10 million in paper deficit.

Her standard of living was also affected as she struggled with her monthly repayments.

Charlene got into property investing during her university days, using her profits from stock trading to buy her first flat — a 1,000-square-foot unit in Shenzhen. She bought it for HK$1.88 million in 2015 and sold it eight months later for HK$3.22 million. The quick gain pushed her to keep buying, and over the next ten years, she built a five-property portfolio.

However, in 2020, she bought an 800-square-foot flat in New Territories West for HK$9.5 million, putting only 20% as a down payment, believing “prices would rise forever”.

Now, amid declining property prices in the city, her Hong Kong flat is worth under HK$7 million, less than what she still owes. With three of her homes in negative equity, she’s now paying HK$60,000 each month to cover her loans.

She’s had to use up most of her savings, and at one point last year, her bank account was down to just HK$5,000 to 6,000.

She noted she had to cut back heavily on her meals, swapping her HK$2,000 to HK$3,000 restaurant meals for home-cooked food or HK$800 to HK$1,000 lunches. “I sacrificed everything for these flats,” she lamented.

Netizens criticised her still “lavish” spending habits.

One netizen said, “Eating HK$1,000 lunches while claiming poverty? This isn’t relatable hardship.” Meanwhile, another poked at her investment strategy, saying, “She chased quick gains without risk assessment—leverage works both ways.”

Charlene now carries around HK$20 million in debt across her properties in the Greater Bay Area. She admitted she went too far, saying, “I wore too big a hat.”

She advised others to avoid making the same mistake, saying, “If you have HK$2 million, buy a HK$4 million flat—not HK$10 million. Don’t borrow to the limit.”

Dimsum Daily Hong Kong later reported that a financial analyst remarked Charlene had “all-inned like a gambler”, using debt in an attempt to chase quick gains. /TISG 

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