HK property agents losing jobs amid govt home-buying curbs

[HONG KONG] Chu Kin-lan has already shuttered six of 11 offices of her Hong Kong real estate agency, whose Chinese name translates as Precious Prosperity, and let go half of her 70 employees amid the city's toughest curbs on home buying in its history. The worst pain may be still to come.

As many as 10,000 real estate agents are forecast to lose their jobs, according to Centaline Property Agency, as the government presses ahead with measures to rein in house prices that have more than doubled since 2009 and hit a record high in March. Because of the cooling measures, home transactions fell to 27,714 in the first half of the year, the lowest since data were first available in 1996, according to the Land Registry.

"We're getting killed by the government here," said Ms Chu, who is in her 50s. She has operated her Bo Fung Property Agency Group in Hong Kong island's district east of Causeway Bay since 1984 and now sees some of her vacated branches replaced by eateries.