Yes, they are - or rather have been. Over the decades, as the go-go city transmogrified from opium exporter to maker of plastic flowers to financial service center, local entrepreneurs have demonstrated a canny ability to keep on top of the changes and flourish. Hence, the theory goes, they will be able to handle this transition with their usual aplomb. Well, let's examine that. For starters, consider what the property economy has done to the local psyche.
People plan their lives and careers around it.
And the people are addicted. During the boom years, one didn't need to be a hotshot fund manager to make a million - thousands of people did so buying and selling flats. It wasn't much but they planned to move up as soon as they could afford it. Like thousands of others, the pair jumped on the property rocket. Thanks to negative real interest rates, pretty soon they were flipping real estate like pros.