Hong Kong Island's New Rich Era

Chapter 98 Whampoa City Sales

The restaurant's private room was a combination of Chinese and Western styles, with an octagonal table at which only Liu Zhicheng and Yang Yuanlong sat.

Yang Minli stood obediently by the side and acted as a temporary waitress, carrying plates and continuously delivering snacks to the table.

This not only prevents outsiders from interrupting their conversation, but also makes her appear well-behaved and sensible.

Yang Yuanlong picked up the teapot and went to pour tea for Liu Zhicheng. At this time, Yang Minli had already sat down. She and Liu Zhicheng reached out at the same time, trying to grab the teapot and pour tea.

Yang Yuanlong smiled and handed the teapot to Yang Minli without saying anything.

Liu Zhicheng was confused. Seeing Yang Yuanlong being so polite, wasn't it time to talk about Uncle Cha's matter today? Was there something else?

Seeing this, Liu Zhicheng quickly expressed his opinion: "Uncle, if you have anything to say, just ask me. As long as I can do it, I will never refuse."

Seeing Liu Zhicheng's serious expression, Yang Yuanlong suddenly joked, "You really won't refuse? When my family gathers for the Spring Festival this year, you can accompany Ali."

Are you serious? According to etiquette, you should visit someone at their home, but this invitation is different.

Yang Yuanlong did not give Liu Zhicheng a chance to answer the question. He smiled and said, "I heard from Ali that you want to invite Mr. Cha for tea?"

"Yes, I have something I want to ask him." Liu Zhicheng answered half-truthfully.

After all, the Xiangjiang Xingye incident hasn't happened yet. If you say it directly, you might as well scare the old man.

"Well, Mr. Zha is in Africa now and won't be back until the Spring Festival. I'll invite him for tea and introduce you to each other then."

"Thank you, uncle." After saying that, Liu Zhicheng picked up the teapot and poured tea for Yang Yuanlong.

When he sat down, he thought about it again and tried to ask, "Uncle, do you know Mr. Wang from Xiangjiang Xingye?"

"Wang Yongxiang?" Yang Yuanlong asked in surprise.

"Yes, he owns a real estate company called Xiangjiang Xingye, which has a project in Lantau Island." Liu Zhicheng said slowly.

"I've met him at the Chamber of Commerce, but we're not very familiar with each other. However, I heard that he's no ordinary person. Ah Cheng, what's going on?" Yang Yuanlong asked.

"It's like this, uncle. I heard that his project had some problems with funding, so I just wanted to ask around to see if I could help."

Back then, Mr. Cha bought the newspaper through Fei Yimin, the editor-in-chief of Ta Kung Pao, for 30 million Hong Kong dollars. One can imagine Wang Yongxiang's background at that time.

Liu Zhicheng wanted to contact them through Yang Yuanlong, hoping to get an advantage in entering the mainland.

In fact, Liu Zhicheng doesn't need to make deliberate efforts to contact others. With his current social status, there will definitely be people who will take the initiative to unite with him.

"I know what you mean. I'll mention you to them at next year's New Year's party and see if there's a chance for us to attend together." Yang Yuanlong said with a smile.

Yang Yuanlong is a smart man and he knows what Liu Zhicheng is thinking. He just wants to make friends with the people over there.

After coming out of the teahouse, Liu Zhicheng seemed to be lost in thought, with a blank expression on his face, as if he was thinking about something important.

Liu Zhicheng has always believed that he is a centrist who can please both sides. However, in reality, it is very difficult to stand in the middle.

A successful enterprise, if it does not have a strong backer to support it, will surely be targeted in various ways, or even directly "attacked".

As a Chinese entrepreneur and a Chinese with a conscience, his choice is actually very simple. There is only one way, which is to strongly support reform and opening up.

Some things don’t need to be stated too clearly, and there is no need to shout out loud every day about what I want to do.

Thinking of this, Liu Zhicheng felt much more relaxed and a happy smile appeared on his face.

A few days later, Liu Zhicheng received the Justice of the Peace medal awarded by the Hong Kong government. He picked it up, looked at it, and put it in the drawer with a smile.

The title of Justice of the Peace was really useful a few years ago, but in the 1980s, it didn't matter whether you had it or not.

Now the Hong Kong government's awarding of Justice of the Peace medals has become a form of praise and recognition for those who have contributed to society.

Although this medal symbolizes courage, justice and dedication, people are able to receive this honor every year.

The world will soon be dominated by Chinese capital. As long as you don't go against the Hong Kong government, I believe you will not be "ostracized".

.........

April 1976, 12, sunny.

Today is Christmas in the West. The morning sun brings a sense of warmth to people.

In Hung Hom, outside a single-storey building by the sea, countless people lined up in a long S-shaped queue, some holding snacks and some standing.

But all of them were anxiously looking at the gate in front of them, expecting someone to come out, because only when someone came out could those of them queuing outside go in.

The local police station sent out patrols to maintain order for fear of accidents.

If in the previous life, passers-by thought they were getting free eggs. In fact, this is just a sales center, and they are all queuing up to buy houses.

"These people are really crazy. We must maintain order and avoid stampedes." Liu Zhicheng sat in the car and looked out the window. "Mr. Liu, only a few of them are real buyers. Most of them are scalpers who come here to speculate on houses." Hao Qingwen said on the side.

"These scalpers keep queuing up and participating in the lottery. They can earn 1000 Hong Kong dollars by reselling one number." Hao Qingwen continued to explain.

"1000 Hong Kong dollars? This is more than what most ordinary workers in Hong Kong can even earn in a month. No wonder there are so many scalpers," said Liu Zhicheng.

As housing prices in Hong Kong rise, the wages of most ordinary workers have increased, but even so, the benefits of queuing here are still too little.

"In fact, it's not that easy to get a number. We limit sales every day. The more people come, the lower the probability of being selected. Most people may not be able to get a number in a month." said Hao Qingwen.

In fact, the biggest scalpers nowadays are not these individuals, but real estate agents who cooperate with real estate companies.

"How many agencies are cooperating with us now?" Liu Zhicheng asked, shaking his head.

Nowadays, real estate companies throughout Hong Kong are not only imposing restrictions on lottery draws, but are also colluding with real estate agents to drive up housing prices.

It’s not that they like to make trouble for home buyers, but they just want to drive up housing prices through this means.

But housing prices are a trend in themselves. High housing prices will only occur when there is market demand. However, cooperation with real estate agents makes it impossible for many people who want to buy houses to buy one.

Even if housing prices are rising, real estate developers, agents and the Hong Kong government will not stop.

Real estate companies are hoarding properties and are reluctant to sell, real estate agents are selling at higher prices, and the Hong Kong government is raising the starting price of land. These parties are working together to drive up housing prices.

As a result, many real estate projects began to limit daily shipments and adopted a lottery method to restrict sales.

This kind of routine also existed in the mainland in the past, but it only appeared in a few places. However, in Hong Kong today, every real estate project uses this operation.

For those scalpers, even if they can get one lottery ticket a month, it is much better than working. Moreover, real estate agents will ask them to queue up at properties that they do not have cooperation with, hoping to get more real estate resources.

"We have a total of 3100 houses. I am currently releasing 100 houses every week, and it is estimated that it will take more than half a year to sell all of them," said Hao Qingwen.

"How is our funding now?" Liu Zhicheng asked again.

"With the pre-sale of the Shau Kei Wan project launched last month and the pre-sale of Whampoa City Phase 1 now underway, as well as the support of the banking consortium, we now have enough funds to develop Phase 2."

Hao Qingwen looked at Liu Zhicheng and continued, "It just so happens that the houses have been sold continuously for a period of time, and the prices have been rising. We will have sufficient funds to develop the second phase."

Huangpu City has a complete development plan. As long as Liu Zhicheng manages the funds safely, he can make money with his eyes closed given the current market conditions.

In addition, the old factory area of ​​Qingzhou Yingmu will also be developed, and by then, the entire Hung Hom will form a new large business district.

"Huangpu City must be developed according to the plan to become the best CBD in Hong Kong. We must spend a lot of money on environment and infrastructure construction." Liu Zhicheng nodded.

This is Liu Zhicheng's future cash cow. Foreign capital needs to go through Hong Kong to do business with the mainland, and mainland companies also need to go through Hong Kong to do business with overseas multinational corporations.

This has led to a surge in the rent of Grade A office buildings in Central. Whether it is abroad or at home, doing business requires reputation. No one would place their headquarters in a place with a poor environment.

Hung Hom's location is very good, as it is close to the sea, has an undersea tunnel directly connected to Hong Kong Island, and there is also a future subway.

Therefore, Liu Zhicheng decided to build Huangpu into a tall, large and fashionable new business district to accommodate companies moving out of Central.

"Don't worry, Mr. Liu. The Huangpu Business District is also executing according to the plan. I will build tens of thousands of parking spaces and establish strong security measures. These will be our advantages," said Hao Qingwen.

"With good supporting facilities, there will be no worries about tenants." Liu Zhicheng nodded and said.

"Our start-up capital all comes from banks, and the interest burden is a bit heavy. The profits from the Huangpu City residential buildings may all be eaten up." Hao Qingwen continued helplessly.

"You have to gain something if you give up something. There is no such thing as perfection. I can just pay it back slowly after collecting rent. Of course, I have to pay a certain price to own such a large commercial district and office building." Liu Zhicheng said with a smile.

The more than 1000 million square feet of commercial areas and office buildings in Whampoa City would be worth HK$90 billion by the 2000s, and the annual rent would be estimated to be over HK$ billion.

The entire Huangpu Group can only focus on this project for the next ten years. In recent years, the rest of the owned land has only been used to build and sell properties to recover funds and ensure the construction of Huangpu City.

The problem is considered over only when the house prices have risen substantially and the rent collected has paid off the loan to a certain extent.

However, operating in this way would definitely result in missing out on too many golden opportunities, so Daya Real Estate Company came into being.

In the future, Huangpu City will not only be able to collect long-term rent, but as long as the land price rises, the value of these properties will also increase, and they can be used for second mortgage loans.

Of course, this risk is also very high. Liu Zhicheng will be more cautious and will definitely not take action until after 85.

"Interest rates are currently high globally and this cannot continue. For the time being, all profits from the Huangpu Group will be used to guarantee interest payments. The real estate market will continue to grow, and rents will also rise in the future," said Liu Zhicheng.

"Okay, Mr. Liu."

Although I don’t like real estate very much, it is a super ATM. Even if I don’t earn money, others will take it away.

In this case, it would be better to keep the money for yourself and invest it in industry in the future to help the long-term development of Hong Kong's economy, or invest it in domestic economic construction after the reform and opening up in the future.

This is a good thing that kills several birds with one stone. Even if we don't go all out, at least we will take it seriously.

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(End of this chapter)