Hotel living 香港酒店出售客房
媒体英语会带大家一起学习 BBC 撰稿人在报道世界大事时常用到的单词和短语。
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买家当住宅房用。香港是全球房价最高的几个城市之一，买酒店客房是当地居民应对房价暴涨的一个方法。下面请听 Jennifer Pak 的报道：
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.
