‘Coffices’ take off as the work place goes mobile

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

What do you get when you cross a café and an office? The answer is a Coffice and it`s a trend that`s gathering pace in Australia and other parts of the world.

Easy access to the internet and the widespread use of smartphones means that working habits have changed and it`s no longer unusual to see coffee shops used for both social and business purposes.

Eagle Waves Radio, a radio station based in a café in Sydney`s Central Business District, says that 15 percent of small business owners in Australia prefer to work in a cafe, or even a hotel foyer, for the ambiance and convenience.

Angela Vithoulkas, who launched the radio station inside her café earlier this year, estimated that about 85 percent of her customers use the space for work.

“I`ve been a café owner for 27 years and what I`ve seen is that with the onset of the internet and increased technology, people are no longer tied to their office,” she said.

“That said, the GFC [global financial crisis] in Sydney really changed the way everybody worked, simply because many people lost permanent jobs and had to adapt,” Vithoulkas said.

(Read more: Australia keeps rates unchanged at record low)

She added: “So a lot of people started up small businesses or became independently employed. They don`t want to go to the expense of hiring an office, why should they? They meet clients at the closet café and that is often a casual but creative way to conduct a meeting.”

Australia`s unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in 2008 just before the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers sparked a global crisis, hitting a peak of 5.9 percent in July 2009. Data on Thursday showed the unemployment rate at 5.7 percent last month.

Vithoulkas pointed to surveys from US universities showing that working in a café could enhance workers` creativity.

A study by the University of Illinois published in The Journal of Consumer Research last year found that a moderate level of ambient noise often associated with coffee shops enhances “performance on creative tasks.”

(Read more: Asia tablet makers take a bite out of Apple)

“For my business I just need to be online with a laptop to use email or make a call, so working from a coffee shop gives me the flexibility,” said the owner of a recruitment firm, who declined to be named, saying he spends a lot of time in Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong.

“Working culture has changed because people use email so much more, are online more and use instant messaging. So a lot of business now is about responding quickly and keeping the momentum going. You can do that from a smartphone but typing from a laptop in a coffee shop is better,” he added.

The term Coffice meanwhile has become part of modern vocabulary partly generated by the growth in new technology.

(Read more: `Selfie` and `phablet` added to the English dictionary`)

According to the website www.urbandictionary.com, a Coffice is a combination of a coffee shop and an office or a “coffee shop one makes into an office where non-coffee shop work is performed.”

“I would say a lot more wheeling and dealing takes place over a coffee now than a beer or golf as used to be the case,” said Vithoulkas at Eagle Waves Radio.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Will the ECB cut rates on Thursday?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The European Central Bank (ECB) will announce its monthly decision on interest rates on Thursday, with opinion divided over whether it will cut rates in response to a sharp fall in inflation.

Last week’s surprisingly low inflation data sparked concerns that the 17-country euro zone is heading for a period of deflation and boosted expectations of a near-team rate cut by the central bank when its governing council meets. Inflation fell to a near-four-year low of 0.7 percent in October.

(Read more: Pressure on ECB to cut rates)

Not everyone is expecting a dramatic move this month, although a number of banks – including Societe Generale and BNP Paribas – said the inflation data boost the chances of a rate cut in December.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Visa abuse: What price for skilled labor?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

For over a decade, there’s been an ongoing argument about the job market. On one side, various companies are saying they can’t find enough skilled workers in the US and therefore have to import workers from overseas. On the other side, labor organizations are saying greedy Corporate America wants cheap foreign labor rather than higher-priced American workers.

Now, smack in the middle of this ongoing debate, throw a news event from last week: One of the largest suppliers of overseas workers to American companies, Infosys, agreed to pay USD 35 million to settle a federal probe.

Investigators alleged that the company used fraudulent tactics to get cheap visitor visas for its personnel, rather than more expensive worker visas. The company denied guilt, but paid the largest settlement ever in an immigration case.

So, it makes you wonder about the larger debate: If Infosys had to pay higher visa costs, would its workers really be that cheap? If American companies really don’t have enough qualified workers, would they still import them despite the higher cost?

Also read: Cognizant’s stellar Q3 shores up sectoral revival hopes

“The case should highlight this widespread and corrosive business practice of using guest-worker visas to replace American workers and to facilitate the offshoring of high-wage American jobs,” said Ron Hira, a public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology and author of “Outsourcing America,” in an email response to questions.

“It is an extraordinarily profitable business model (more than 25 percent net margins) that is bad for American workers as well as the American economy … Everyone who has objectively looked at the ‘skills gap’ comes to the conclusion that one simply doesn’t exist — particularly in these ordinary IT jobs.”

Not everyone agrees, however.

“This Infosys squabble has nothing at all to do with the systemic skills gap/open jobs situation in America,” said Gary Beach, author of “The US Technology Skills Gap.” “It is much ado about nothing.”

Beach argues that the Infosys investigation concerned only 15 percent of the company’s workforce in the United States. Even if, for argument’s sake, other Indian labor suppliers were misusing guest-visa programs in a similar fashion, which hasn’t been suggested, it would only amount to 7,000 jobs, according to Beach’s calculations.

“It is still a drop in the bucket of the 12 million unemployed Americans and 4 million open jobs,” Beach said in an email exchange.

Still, others argue the Infosys settlement misses the point.

“I have long criticized the hoopla given to such cases as scapegoating, attempts to distract attention from the fact that abuse of immigration policy (H-1B, employer-sponsored green cards, etc.) pervades the ENTIRE tech industry, NOT just the Indian body shops such as Infosys,” Norm Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis, said in a commentary.

“The Indian firms hire at a less-skilled level of worker and yes, sometimes do violate the rules, but why is that any different from mainstream US firms using industry-installed loopholes to hire foreign students from US universities instead of equally-qualified US citizens and permanent residents? Abuse is abuse.”

Apparently the job-skills debate will go on.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Twitter IPO prices at $26 per share, above estimates

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Twitter priced at USD 26 per share for its initial public offering, the company said on Wednesday.

Earlier, underwriters involved with the Twitter IPO aimed to price the social network’s stock at USD 27, barring any last-minute hitches, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Read more: Will Twitter IPO pop? Hedge funds weigh in

The original expected range of USD 23 to USD 25 per share. With 70 million shares to be issued, the company — which is not yet profitable — will raise USD 1.82 billion, valuing the company at USD 18.3 billion, fully diluted.

“The fact that they started with a range, they were able to raise it and they were able to price it above the range means that there was unprecedented demand, lots of demand for this IPO and we’ll see how well they do tomorrow,” said Carol Roth, a former investment banker and CNBC contributor, on Wednesday evening after Twitter’s stock priced.

The social media company said in its statement that it has also granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 10.5 million additional shares of common stock.

Goldman Sachs is serving as the lead underwriter for the Twitter IPO, alongside Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase.

Read more: Stay away from Twitter, advisors say in survey

The stock is set to begin trading on Thursday and will trade under the stock symbol “TWTR” on the New York Stock Exchange.

But as Twitter becomes a publicly traded company, some investors are remaining cautious and passing on the IPO in order to get a better sense of how the company will fair in the public markets.

“We’re not as confident the business model will be as broad or as successful as a Facebook or a Google,” said Channing Smith of Capital Advisors Growth Fund on CNBC Wednesday.

“We still have to see this management team perform and how they act as a public company and we have to see if the advertising initiatives stick.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Could Twitter be another BlackBerry?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

As Twitter gears up for its much-anticipated initial public offering (IPO) on Thursday, one analyst told CNBC the social networking giant risks a similar path to troubled smartphone maker BlackBerry.

Twitter’s public listing has attracted a great deal of attention from investors, who hope the popular micro-blogging site could follow other recent tech success stories like Google and Facebook. However, many analysts are dubious as to how lucrative investing in Twitter shares will be.

A recent poll by CNBC and the Associated Press showed that over half of the investors polled said Twitter would not be a good investment.

(Read more: Cramer’s issues warning about the Twitter IPO)

“With Twitter, it could be another Palm [U.S. smartphone manufacturer] or BlackBerry where it has a couple years of phenomenal growth, big profits but then a new technology comes along and it has no staying power,” Jay Ritter, professor of finance at the University of Florida, who consulted on the Google IPO in 2004, told CNBC Asia’s Squawk Box Wednesday.

“Even companies in a winner-take-all market aren’t guaranteed success-an alternative technology could come along which results in a market collapsing,” he added, also referencing U.S. global courier delivery services company Federal Express, which dominated the overnight letter delivery market until e-mail attachments drastically shrunk its business.

 “Both Palm with the Palm Pilot and Research-in-Motion with the BlackBerry once dominated a niche, but the niche changed,” he added.

Canadian-headquartered technology firm BlackBerry enjoyed huge success with its BlackBerry smartphone when it was launched in 2003, and is considered by many as the pioneering product in the sector.

But the company has fallen from grace in recent years as rivals Apple and Samsung encroached on market share. In recent times the firm’s demise has become more acute and this week it announced that it had been unable to secure a deal to go private and instead had raised USD 1 billion in fresh financing.

(Read more: Bye, bye, BlackBerry)

Ritter said the threat of competition from rival firms or more innovative technology developments was a major risk involved with investing in technology IPOs, like Twitter.

“Microsoft and Apple have demonstrated an ability to make big profits for many, many years but they are more the exception to the rule,” he added.

Ritter said a key concern he has with Twitter is that a lot of the optimism investors have about the firm is already priced into its valuation, he said, as opposed to how Facebook and Google were perceived at the time when no-one really understood how profitable targeted advertising could be.

 “Because Google has demonstrated how profitable targeted advertising can be – people are willing to pay a much higher valuation [for Twitter]. But at the higher valuation… there’s a lot of optimism built into the price and that limits the upside potential for investors,” he said.

On Monday Twitter raised the range in which it would price its offering to USD 23 to USD 25 a share, from a previously disclosed range of USD 17 to  USD 20. At the upper end of the new range, Twitter would raise as much as USD 1.75 billion and be valued as high as USD 13.6 billion.

“With Twitter there’s a lot more uncertainty than there was with and is with Facebook,” said Ritter, referring to how Facebook was already generating profits when it went public in May last year.

(Read more: Market getting bubbly? #TwitterIPO won’t be a reason why)

“Twitter is yet to achieve profit so there is a possibility it can flame out without ever turning a corner or becoming profitable,” he added.

However, despite the naysayers, many analysts are excited about Twitter’s potential growth, given its growing user base, its potential for international growth and talk of the firm’s partnerships with content creators in media and entertainment.

“What Twitter is selling essentially is a new type of advertising platform, scalable across desktop and mobile,” said Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group, a San Mateo, Calif.-research group told CNBC.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Selfies at funerals puts last nail in society’s coffin

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

No moment in life is either too serious or too trivial to pass without someone providing a rapid, vapid response through social media.

“Love my hair today. Hate why I’m dressed up #funeral”, reads the caption of a self-portrait snapped by a young woman dressed in black. Another photo of a blonde pouting in her pink bedroom with a “Keep Calm and Rock On” sign is titled, simply, “depressing funeral selfie.”

(Read more: This app makes your selfies look … complete)

Yes, that is depressing; we don’t even know how to be depressed anymore. There is tedium in every social medium to the point where even death becomes boring.

A collection of strangely un-sad Instagrams, Tweets, and Facebook posts have been gathered together at a Tumblr blog (naturally) called, “Selfies at Funerals.”

“Killin the selfie game at pop’s funeral,” tweets a joyful young man mocking a piece of statuary. Pop’s gotta be proud. So proud he may rise up from the dead and slap you. (I hope so!)

Harsh? Katy Waldman at Slate.com says I should all calm down a little.

“Is it somehow more tasteful, even nobler, to keep grief private? If that’s the case, the problem with Internet mourning far predates the Internet: People have been putting their sadness on display—wearing black, holding ceremonies—since the ancient Greeks first hired mourners to tear out their hair at funerals. Social media may make it easier to launch a stream of frown-y faces into the ether, but Mark Zuckerberg didn’t invent the impulse to reach out when you’re hurting.”

(Read more: Who’s viewing from your Instagram, and profiting?)

True, if you’re hurting or if you’re sad. But if you’re just amazed at how much you’re rockin’ the outfit while Cousin Jamie is laid out in a coffin, well, that’s not grief; it’s a symptom of our collective cultural death wish, a bad case of Kardashianitis.

Believe me, I’m as guilty as anyone. I’ve posted selfies looking my absolute worst all done up in foil under a hair dryer at the salon. I tweeted a photo of all the functions available on a public toilet in Japan (though, technically, you don’t see me in the photo, but you get the picture, if you know what I mean). I, like so many others, need to step away from the “send” and “share” buttons. But even I wouldn’t snap a self-portrait inside a funeral home with Grandma visible in her open casket behind me. Someone else did that.

An article from New Zealand teaches us there are five places where you should not take selfies, including holocaust memorials, especially when smiling and giving a thumbs up.

One other suggestion: don’t take a selfie dressed up as a robber before you go out and (allegedly) commit robbery, like these two teenage girls did.

(Read more: Instagram, other sites go down)

So what’s next? What annoyingly self-absorbed Everest is left to climb? “Colonoscopy selfies,” joked @jakejakeny.

Too late.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Many Americans see China as dominant economic power

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

More than one quarter of Americans currently perceive China as the world`s dominant economic power, according to a new survey, a reflection of the changing global order.

While the majority, or 59 percent, of Americans see the United States as the world`s dominant economic power, only 43 percent of those polled believe it will retain its title by the end of the decade, according to a poll by GfK North America with TheStreet.

By contrast, 36 percent believe China will claim the position by 2020.

“Despite the slow economic recovery of the five years since the financial crisis, most people in the United States still regard the nation as the world`s dominant economic power,” said Joe Deaux, economics analyst at TheStreet.

“However, confidence that the US will retain that status five to seven years out wavers. Though respondents still see the US in the future as the outright economic leader, favor for China substantially narrows the gap,” he said.

(Read more: Data show China passing US as biggest oil importer)

While China`s economic strength is on the rise, the size of the mainland economy at USD 8.23 trillion is just over half that of the US at USD 15.68 trillion, according to 2012 gross domestic product data.

However, China is seen overtaking the US as the world`s largest economy by 2030, according to the National Intelligence Council, an analytical arm of the US government`s Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

(Read more: US Intelligence: Asia`s Global Power Rising by 2030)

Aside from the world`s two leading economies, 3.4 percent of respondents believe India could become the biggest economic power by 2020.

Even fewer saw potential for Russia, the euro zone and South America to emerge as a dominant economic force, at 2.2 percent, 1.9 percent at 1.6 percent, respectively.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

This emerging giant’s growth may slow to 2009 levels

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Growth in one-time Asian tiger Indonesia may have slowed to 2009 levels in the third quarter, but economists aren`t pushing the panic button just yet.

Economists expect Indonesia`s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.6 percent in the third quarter, according to a Reuters survey. That would be the slowest since the fourth quarter of 2009, according to data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), when the world was still mired in the global financial crisis. The data are due on November 6.

(Read more: Is Indonesia about to regain its Asian tiger stripes?)

“High-frequency indicators suggest production slowed over the third quarter, while import demand and loan growth have also cooled,” Moody`s Analytics said in a note.

Over the past few months, Indonesia has been buffeted by market volatility, spurred in part by concerns that the US Federal Reserve`s plans to begin tapering its asset purchases would make it difficult for the country to finance its current account deficit – 4.4 percent of GDP as of the second quarter.

In the June to September period, Indonesia`s central bank hiked rates by 150 basis points to 7.25 percent as the country`s markets and currency were hard-hit by fund outflows. The rupiah weakened sharply, with the US dollar currently buying around 11,360 rupiah, compared with around 9,700 in May.

(Read more: Tourists flock to Indonesia, lured by a cheaper rupiah)

“This is choking domestic demand and will likely stifle growth over the coming quarters,” Moody`s Analytics said; it expects growth of just 5.1 percent for the quarter.

But economists aren`t running up the white flag.

“It is the lowest growth rate since 2009. However the economy is still expected to grow well over 5 percent,” said Frederic Neumann, an economist at HSBC. “It`s fairly positive given the headwinds.”

(Read more: Indonesia Finance Minister `comfortable` with rupiah level)

Neumann said he is still concerned about Indonesia`s widening trade deficit and slowing of commodity exports, “but by and large consumer spending remains robust.” He also expects the elections in July to give consumer spending its traditional fillip, especially in the provinces.

“Next year should be a relatively robust year,” he said, expecting the fourth quarter will likely mark the bottom for slowing growth.

But he added, without “far-reaching” structural reforms, economic growth isn`t likely to accelerate much.

Edward Lee, an economist at Standard Chartered, expects the third quarter will mark the bottom for the pace of growth; he forecasts 5.7 percent growth for the quarter.

For the full year, Bank Indonesia expects economic growth of 5.5-5.9 percent, while the World Bank expects 5.6 percent growth.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Vanguard overtakes Pimco with world’s largest mutual fund

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Pimco’s flagship bond product has lost its status as the world’s largest mutual fund, Morningstar data has shown.

The USD 248 billion Pimco Total Return fund was overtaken by the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index fund, a product which tracks the entire US equity market, in October, according to the funds data provider.

The Vanguard fund had USD 288 billion of assets at the end of October.

(Read More: Wealthy didn’t ‘build that,’ they ‘rode it,’ says Gross)

The Pimco Total Return fund, which is run by renowned bond manager Bill Gross, saw its sixth consecutive month of outflows in October, as investors withdrew USD 4.4 billion of net assets, bringing total outflows to USD 33.2 billion year-to-date.

The Pimco product has lagged the sector of late, returning 0.9 percent in October, compared to a 1 percent average return by US intermediate term bond funds – those with maturity levels of 10 to 15 years – Morningstar data showed. The Pimco fund has lost 1.29 percent over the past year, compared to an average 0.71 percent loss.

Investors’ healthy appetite for stocks, which has seen the S&P 500 power 24 percent higher this year, has dampened demand for fixed income investments in general.

(Read More: Carl Icahn fires back at Bill Gross on Twitter)

Concern over the end of the US Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program, which is expected to eventually lead to higher interest rates, has made bond products less attractive to investors.

(Read More: Gross: The stock market and asset prices are ‘bubbly’)

“At a macro level, this reflects the rotation away from bonds,” said Rob Aspin, head of equity strategy at wealth management group for Standard Chartered bank.

“The bond market is in a thirty-year cycle, and its bull market started in 1980 so we should be close to the bottom now. We expect yields [on Treasurys] to continue rising over the longer term and expect the US 10-year [yield] to hit around 3 percent over 6 months and approximately 3.5 percent 12 months out,” he added.

Morningstar data also showed that global appetite for fixed income has waned over the past year.

Year-to-date, fixed income funds have attracted roughly USD 150 billion worth of net flows (the amount of inflows minus redemptions), while their equity counterparts have attracted around USD 219 billion on a global scale.

Pimco were not immediately available for comment.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Sky may not be falling on Hong Kong property

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Analysts claim that the sky is falling on Hong Kong’s property segment, with predictions prices could decline as much as 30 percent by the end of 2015, may just be playing the fabled Chicken Little, frightened by an acorn.

“We are not expecting a boom-bust scenario,” Morgan Stanley said in a note.

“Strong end-user demand backed by low unemployment rates, increasing numbers of new marriages and babies continue to support the mass-market projects,” the bank said. “(The) recent discount model on luxury projects is also working well,” it said, noting inventory is clearing at discounted prices and generating decent margins for developers.

(Read more: 30% correction coming for Hong Kong housing: Barclays)

To be sure, Morgan Stanley expects Hong Kong’s residential property prices to fall around 10 percent in 2014 in anticipation of higher real interest rates and rising supply, but it believes a recurrence of the property-price crashes in the 1997 Asian financial crisis or the 2008 global financial crisis is unlikely amid minimal levels of speculation and the absence of an external shock.

(Read more: Hong Kong luxury home buyers queue amid talk of last hurrah)

“In 1997, property speculation was rampant with the ratio of mortgage payment to median household income peaking at 140 percent in the second quarter of 1997, compared to 55 percent now. The 2008 scenario is also atypical given the prevalence of external shock – the global financial crisis – at the time,” it said.

Recent sales in the primary market might support a less-than-catastrophic view for the segment.

“Some of the recent new launches have received a satisfactory response, with most units sold on the first day,” said Jonas Kan, an analyst at Daiwa, in a note.

Paul Louie, MD, Head of Property Sector, Asia Ex-Japan Equity Research at Barclays expect a synchronized downturn, with office prices falling by 20 percent.

“Market demand has not been as bad as many assumed it would be,” he said. “Developers are not embarking on a vicious price war or giving away their margins for cash.”

Indeed, Kan said the rebates developers are offering are mitigating the government’s sector-cooling measures and helping to shed light on actual underlying demand, adding that in the local market, improving investment demand tends to speed up the pace of the pickup for end-user demand.

He expects a period of consolidation for the residential sector after “being on the up” for around 10 years, forecasting a 10-15 percent price decline in 2014.

(Read more: Where’s the next property bubble building)

BNP Paribas also noted strong sales of high-end projects in prime locations, with 100 percent take-up of the units launched over the weekend; on November 2-3, 247 units sold in the primary market, up 19.3 percent from the previous weekend.

“Attractive pricing has attracted strong demand from buyers. We expect developers to accelerate high-end launches,” it said in a note.

Doomsayers, however, are sticking by their guns.

“That first round of price cutting has been effective and we’ve been able to draw some demand, but as we continue to see more and more of these price cuts come through, we’ll see demand start to pull back,” Paul Louie, an analyst at Barclays, told CNBC. “Buyers will return to the sidelines. They’ll wait for the better deals.”

He also noted household incomes in Hong Kong are stalling, while property purchase prices are running around 13.3 times income, higher than in 1996-1997.

“In order to maintain that unaffordability, the hope value that people’s income can catch up over time is very important. But as income begins to stall, that unaffordability is going to become very real for a lot of people,” he said.

Louie has forecast an at least 30 percent drop in home prices by the end of 2015, with knock-on effects to send office property prices down 20 percent and stall retail properties with zero growth.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow