Producing ‘luxury’ housing: Developers’ strategies and housing advertisements in Hong Kong (1961–2011)

Abstract

Building on insights from critical luxury studies, this paper examines how developers produce ‘luxury’ in Hong Kong’s high-priced housing by using textual analysis on a sample of newspaper advertisements for private housing from 1961 to 2011. Findings show how advertisers and developers actively injected new elements of luxury to maximise profits. We argue that Hong Kong’s property oligarchy has successfully created luxury housing in previously unremarkable locations by producing various exclusivist aspirations, thus promoting excess and reinforcing housing and socio-spatial inequalities. Our discussion deepens understanding of Hong Kong’s housing hierarchy by looking beyond location-based exclusivity and contributes to critical luxury studies by underscoring the strategies of property conglomerates in the production of luxury housing.