Hotel living 香港酒店出售客房
媒體英語會帶大家一起學習 BBC 撰稿人在報道世界大事時常用到的單詞和短語。
Why are people buying hotel rooms to live in?
香港的一家酒店近日出售了一些客房供買家當住宅房用。香港是全球房價最高的幾個城市之一，買酒店客房是當地居民應對房價暴漲的一個方法。下面請聽 Jennifer Pak 的報道：
The hotel suites are cheaper than apartments in Hong Kong. Hundreds of people lined up for hours to buy a unit at the Apex Horizon Hotel this week. It's not clear whether investors can legally live in the suites but buyers are still eager.
Voice of Hong Kong man:
The developer had lawyers look at it thoroughly, so I'm not worried.
Voice of Hong Kong woman:
At these prices the hotel suites are cheaper to buy than public housing.
The hotel was able to sell all 360 of its suites in two days - a sign there is a demand for affordable housing. Hong Kong's low interest rate has attracted hoards of mainland Chinese investors.
It pushed home prices to record highs last year. Flats cost an average of HK$14,000 per square metre in central locations. Many residents feel they can no longer afford to buy apartments.
Hong Kong people cope by renting makeshift homes on rooftops, while others move into so-called cage homes - hutches made from wire-mesh, stacked on top of each other in a tiny room. The government's efforts to cool down property prices have not worked. So Hong Kong residents have to be creative in finding space to live.
