Steve Dressler, the owner of Hong Kong-based relocation services company Trade Winds, has had a front-row seat to an exodus over the past three years as pandemic restrictions sent residents fleeing in droves. Business was so hectic that departing families launched “bidding wars” for shipping containers, he said.
Hong Kong has finally lifted the tough Covid-19 controls that sent the economy into recession and undermined its status as Asia’s financial hub. Dressler has “sent [the] whole team on holiday” — an illustration of how people may not be leaving, but they are not returning yet, either.
“There are no families taking two-year leases in Stanley and MacDonnell Road,” he said, referring to wealthy residential districts. “It’s singles taking serviced apartments in Wan Chai and I have no business.”