golf carts outside Discovery Bay
International School and Discov-
ery College. ‘In DB, all the women
want to take their children to
school,’ he said. ‘All the families
need a golf cart to rent.’
Anyone looking to buy a cart must
own a property in Discovery Bay,
but as long as they can find some-
one willing to trade the license to
them, they can switch the registra-
tion of the vehicle into their name.
That is the challenge. Prospective
buyers sometimes have adver-
tisements listed on the online
Discovery Bay Forum or in the
local grocery store for three or
four months without getting much
of a response. The few carts that
do come up for sale often move
quickly - and attempts at negotiat-
ing on the price are met with stony
silence.
The carts are technically village
vehicles, licensed under the Vil-
lage Vehicle Permit system, like
the work carts and trolleys used
in car-free islands such as Cheung
Chau and Lamma. But the annual
permit cost is negligible, at HK$97.
The other annual costs are also
small. Drivers must get third-party
insurance, which costs HK$850
for personal use or HK$1,150
for a cart that is rented out. And
they must pay HK$1,100 per year
towards a road fund run by Dis-
covery Bay City Management.
The price to buy a cart is far above
its intrinsic value - it costs around
HK$85,000 to HK$90,000 to
replace an old cart, depending on
the model.
‘It’s the license plate you are
buying,’ King said. ‘The vehicle is
almost incidental.’
Well, not quite. The newest mod-
els are electric-powered, some
with solar panels on their roofs to
keep them charged, a much quiet-
er and eco-friendly version than
the old gasoline-powered models.
‘If you’ve got the new Yamaha,
you’ve got the Rolls Royce,’ said
Christine King, the director of
Headland Homes, and Brian King’s
wife. The E-Z-GOs are the next-
most popular, with the Columbia
Par Car one rung further down.
Some of the Par Cars are the
original models from the 1980s
and are still running on the roads.
‘They’re a lot more stable, and can
go pretty fast,’ King said.
She recalls buying her first cart for
HK$37,000 in 1987. She has since
built up a stable of five, which
she uses for work, or to rent out
with specific properties. But the
sudden escalation in prices has
been shocking, she said, with carts
selling for HK$1 million 18 months
ago.
‘How to make a cool million on a
golf cart in a year,’ she joked. ‘I’m
quite happy.’
Property brokers, in particular,
find the carts essential if they are
going to take residents around
the increasingly sprawling devel-
opment. Some landlords consider
the golf carts an investment and
lease them along with apartments
they have for rent to make a more
attractive package.
Hong Kong Resorts requested the
government relax the number of
licenses in Discovery Bay. Brokers
estimate there are now about
23,000 residents, after the addi-
tion of projects such as Siena One
and Two, completed in 2003, and
the Chianti, unveiled in 2007.
The 850 units of the Amalfi, a new
development next to the Chianti,
will likely see another influx of
a couple of thousand residents
moving into Discovery Bay. That is
slated to go on the market at the
end of this year or early next year,
brokers say, though the timing has
yet to be confirmed.
Residents now expect a dip in de-
mand for golf carts as the property
market cools. But the price for
the carts is likely to remain high
as long as there is no change in
government policy.
‘There are no more golf carts, so
as long as they keep putting more
and more people here the price
is not likely to change,’ Brian King
said. ‘It’s simple supply and de-
mand.’
Residents are not allowed to deco-
rate their carts, which must remain
white - although the occasional ze-
bra-striped cart is spotted, partic-
ularly around Halloween. But they
are still a significant status symbol.
‘It’s become like a good golf cart
is like driving a Maserati or a
Porsche,’ said Katie Jepson, anoth-
er Discovery Bay property broker.
‘Crazy. Only in Hong Kong.’
JUNE 2019
27