When visiting Discovery Bay you quickly notice there are no vehicle rollin’ down the streets. You’ll find lots of walkable paths and trails, which makes for a very welcoming, consumer friendly neighborhood. People walk everywhere, to the park, to school, to grocery store, pretty much everywhere.

You will also notice plenty of buses, delivery vans, and golf carts around the city. Honestly, I didn’t really think much about the golf carts at first. It was more like — oh that’s cool, people have golf carts here.  But after three different people said, “have you heard about the golf carts …” I started to realize there’s more to the golf carts than meets the eyes.

So off to my research I began. I am going to drop in some quotes because I don’t know that people will believe what I learned.

“On the two-lane streets of Discovery Bay – a residential development  a 30-minute ferry ride from downtown Hong Kong – the golf carts are both the transportation of choice and an investment play for the wealthy. The buggies can sell for more than HK$2 million (US$255,000) in the upscale neighborhood that’s home to airline pilots, bankers and lawyers.”

Yes, you read that correctly $255,000 USD!

“Business executives drive them, expatriates love them and nannies ferry kids to school in them. Private passenger cars aren’t allowed in this neighborhood, and the Transport Department has capped golf-cart licenses at about 500. The supply crunch has transformed these slow gas-guzzlers into luxury transportation. Some buyers view them as investments – renting them out or reselling to make money.”

Yep, only 500 allowed for a community of about 20,000 people!

“In Discovery Bay, buyers are essentially paying for the license, which can only be owned by residents who also own property.  They can freely trade between individual owners.”

Interesting, so there’s no way you’re gonna get a golf cart unless you know someone or you really do have HK$2 million!

Apparently, this is the city of songs because as I am writing this blog post the song Ridin’ is playing on loop in my head, which totally seems appropriate.

Resources:

• https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/2142950/hk2-million-golf-carts-cost-more-tesla-hong-kong
• https://www.scmp.com/article/975223/golf-carts-roll-past-hk2-million
• http://www.arounddb.com/news/db-golf-carts-make-international-headlines/
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-04-16/teslas-and-porsches-cost-less-than-golf-carts-in-hong-kong