Producing ‘luxury’ housing: Developers’ strategies and housing advertisements in Hong Kong (1961–2011)

Building on insights from critical luxury studies, this paper examines how developers produce ‘luxury’ in Hong
Kong’s high-priced housing by using textual analysis on a sample of newspaper advertisements for private
housing from 1961 to 2011. Findings show how advertisers and developers actively injected new elements
of luxury to maximise profits. We argue that Hong Kong’s property oligarchy has successfully created luxury
housing in previously unremarkable locations by producing various exclusivist aspirations, thus promoting
excess and reinforcing housing and socio-spatial inequalities. Our discussion deepens understanding of Hong
Kong’s housing hierarchy by looking beyond location-based exclusivity and contributes to critical luxury
studies by underscoring the strategies of property conglomerates in the production of luxury housing.