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Rich immigrants in Asia’s financial capitals generally have life pretty easy. But this summer, those in Hong Kong and Singapore are starting to sweat. The problem? Sizzling real-estate markets that make even bankers blink, and international schools packed like the Tokyo subway at rush hour. One-bedroom flats in Hong Kong’s most fashionable buildings now go for $5,000 per month. Office rents in Singapore have shot up 105 percent in the past year—the fastest appreciation rate in the world. For workers with kids, the picture is particularly bleak. Incoming students at international schools now land not in classes but on long waiting lists—unless their parents jump the queue by purchasing debentures that have sold for as much as $120,000 in Hong Kong.
Asia’s dueling financial hubs invest a lot of capital—real and emotional—in what’s often cast as a zero-sum contest for the affection of foreign companies. Yet both cities have done so well wooing them of late that the major threat facing each isn’t the other, but bottlenecks in the foreign infrastructure common to both. High-end housing costs are pushing past records set before the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, prompting Singapore’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, to lament, “We must check this hike in rents or we will lose our competitiveness.”
Talent is getting tougher to find as both economies near full employment. Office rents are driving even the richest investment banks to seek cheaper alternatives to prime downtown addresses. And as both cities increase their populations by luring hundreds of thousands of additional outsiders over the coming decade, locals are getting squeezed. “There may be a political cost if Singaporeans feel priced out by foreigners,” warns Charles Chong, head of a parliamentary committee on national development in Singapore.
Both cities are, in a sense, victims of their success. Each ranks among the most efficient spots on the planet to register new businesses. They boast world-class banking, accounting and legal services, undergirded by respect for contracts and commercial codes not found in the rest of Asia. In a region awash in cash from record trade surpluses, Chinese expansion and a flood of new stock listings, the cities have posted incredible GDP growth numbers of late—6.8 percent and 7.9 percent for Hong Kong and Singapore, respectively, last year.
Given that local fertility rates are falling, both hubs hope to continue to fuel that boom via immigration. Singapore’s Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan expects the city-state’s population to hit 6.5 million by 2027, up 2 million from today—which implies a yearly influx of 100, 000 foreigners over the next two decades. Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang has said he envisions his city’s population eventually surpassing 10 million—a 30 percent increase from today’s total—thanks to “an injection of new blood from all nationalities.” As the hubs grow more receptive to outsiders, new factors are ensuring that immigrants arrive in large numbers. Whereas globalization was once confined to big multinationals, today’s expatriates work disproportionately for smaller-and medium-size companies. Nor are they predominantly European or North America anymore; China, India and South Korea are just three of the many countries now sending professionals abroad.
1. Foreigners in Hong Kong begin to sweat because _______.
A) the real-estate market is cooling down
B) they cannot afford children’s tuition fee at international schools
C) the city is over-populated
D) the hiking rents are making life tougher
2. We can learn from the second paragraph that ______.
A) Hong Kong and Singapore consider each other as competitors
B) both two cities should not attract any more foreigners because there will not be enough land to hold them
C) the “bottlenecks” refer to the fact that the infrastructures of the two cities are not pleasant enough to woo foreign companies
D) Lee Kuan Yew’s comment shows that he’s pessimistic about Singapore’s future development
3. According to the text, local people in the two cities _______.
A) do not welcome overseas talents
B) are facing worse living conditions
C) are unsatisfied with the government
D) are in full employment
4. Which of the following is NOT the reason of the region’s abundance of capital?
A) Efficiency of business registration.
B) China’s development.
C) Booming stock market.
D) Benefit from trade.
5. We can draw a conclusion from the last paragraph that _______.
A) the conflict between population and rent in the two cities might be more serious since both cities plan to enlarge their citizen number
B) the population increase plan of the two cities can hardly be fulfilled as the higher living expense damages their attractiveness
C) the definition of globalization has been changed mainly because most local people refuse to work in multinational companies
D) the influx of foreigners can damage local economy because they will compete for the limited resources with locals