A Hong Kong Property Dynasty in Disarray

In Hong Kong, residents say property is the city’s religion. Listing agencies line the streets and agents hand out flyers. For decades, four families—each worth tens of billions of dollars—have dominated the sector. Now one of them is in turmoil.

The Cheng family controls New World Development, owner of some of the city’s most iconic buildings. The family got its start in the gold business in the 1940s before later expanding into property. Since then, it spent billions of dollars transforming Hong Kong’s waterfront with destinations like a high-end shopping mall and five-star hotel. But in recent years, a string of crises laid low Hong Kong’s retail and property sectors. In this Bloomberg Originals mini-documentary, we explain how this—and some internal strife—threw New World into disarray.