Sydney broker Rachel Yeung tells SBS Cantonese she’s seeing a surge in enquiries from Hongkongers curious about Australian mortgage loans since China’s proposed security laws were announced a week ago.
The Director of Mortgage Helper Pty Ltd says the increase in interest has come on the back of a wave of enquiries since anti-government protests began in Hong Kong last May.
On Friday, China's parliament proposed introducing a new security laws in Hong Kong, which would bypass Hong Kong's autonomous legislature, and be inserted into Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
The move prompted immediate condemnation from legal academics in Hong Kong, who said the introduction of new laws which bypassed the city’s Legislative Council, effectively violated the Basic Law and rendered the "One Country, Two System" status of the city invalid.
The proposal reignited violent , which had paused since strict social distancing rules came into effect to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
Police arrested at least 180 people during the clashes, after failing to disperse crowds by firing tear gas and deploying water cannons.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Tuesdays, saying they will not trample on the city's rights and freedoms
"In the last 23 years, whenever people worried about Hong Kong's freedom of speech and freedom of expression and protest, time and again, Hong Kong has proven that we uphold and preserve those values," she said.
"The best thing is to see the legislation in front of us and to understand why at this point in time Hong Kong needs this piece of legislation."
Hong Kongers may “give up”
The proposed laws may prompt some Hongkongers to "give up" the fight against the government, and seek a departure from the city, Ms Yeung said.
Along with the recent surge in mortgage loan enquiries, she noted that since the “anti-extradition” protests began in May 2019, the general number of new customer enquiries had risen from around four per week to between 10 to 20.
On the day that China proposed the new laws, she received eight enquiries alone.
"My phone was ringing nonstop," she said.
She said most enquiring Hongkongers were from the middle-class, who earn more than HK$1 million (AU$200,000) per year.
Rachel Yeung, Director of Mortgage Helper. Source: Supplied
She said the interested parties were not necessarily seeking to migrate to Australia in the near future, but rather to “open mortgage offset accounts for the purpose of transferring funds to Australia”.
Yet, she expects that there will be a surge in migration from Hong Kong, as most of her customers also request to get in touch with migration lawyers and migration agents.
But without Australian citizenship or permanent residency, she said it would be very difficult for the interested parties to obtain loans as there was only one Australian bank who accepted home loan applications from non-citizens or non-permanent residents, requiring the applicant to undergo thorough screening procedures.
"Another bank which used to lend money to Hongkongers had ceased doing so last year due to the political issues happening in Hong Kong," she said.
The halt to migration to Australia is contributing to the downturn in the property market. Source: AAP
'Bigger wave' than after Tiananmen
Migration agent Richard Wong said he had seen a fivefold increase in enquiries from Hongkongers since the proposed laws were announced.
He said the number of clients and attendees to his information seminars increased “precipitously”, noting a jump from around 25 per cent to 75 per cent.
Born in Hong Kong, Mr Wong moved to Australia in 2007. Like many, he considered leaving Hong Kong following the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
Australia was the first country to condemn the Communist authority’s crackdown in 1989 and offered humanitarian visas to Chinese citizens who wished to start a new life.
Mr Wong said the current unrest may see a larger wave of migration than the one seen three decades ago.
“The enduring political instability in Hong Kong may potentially lead to a bigger wave of migration because what they saw on TV three decades ago now seems to be repeating itself in their homeland."
