When Hong Kong businessman Mr. He paid a 35,000 pound ($56,000) deposit on a four-bedroom apartment in Britain, he believed it was a 40-minute walk from central London, his lawyer says. In fact it was a 40-minute journey by high-speed train.
The 350,000 pound home was in Lincolnshire, eastern England. He sued the developer for misrepresentation last year, getting his money back before the case got to court in what his lawyer told Reuters was an attempt by the developer to avoid its marketing material being splashed around a courtroom.
His experience shows the potential pitfalls facing a growing number of Far Eastern people buying British homes unseen as developers target places such as Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore because British buyers are struggling to get mortgages.
"It is a matter of developers saying: 'Here are some people who are likely to be interested. They probably do not know too much about the market, so why don't we advertise there'," said David Eldon, former chairman of HSBC's Asia unit who has witnessed the practice during two decades in Hong Kong.