The front desk staff at Shimao's Shenzhen property found out their employer was in trouble the same way everyone else did: a Bloomberg headline. HSBC and the other creditors have moved to seize the hotel portfolio, and they are shopping it now at a third off the original price. One in three dollars, gone. The Shimao group borrowed like the good times were structural and now the banks are the ones running the checkout.

Here is the part that should bother anyone with a flat in the New Territories. Property stocks dropped Wednesday on US rate fears, new flats have been shrinking for thirty years according to a study in The Standard, and the biggest distressed hotel deal of the year is pricing at HK$0.67 on the dollar. Three data points, one direction. The developers who told you Hong Kong property only goes up are the same people whose creditors are now on the phone with Colliers trying to find a buyer before the end of Q3. The HSBC workout team has the portfolio listed. That is the price of the bag right now.