Hong Kong, August 29--The majority of Hong Kong's architects and interior designers are back in business and making money now that the property market has returned to health.
But for a small knot of architects, designers and their suppliers - the ones who have carved out a niche working for the city's moneyed elite - things have gone from good to great.
Hong Kong's Equal Limited, which specializes in European hardwood flooring and paneling, saw steady turnover in the lean years, and since the market revived has experienced about 20 percent growth, according to founder and director Philip Lau.
Designers say that in the world of high-end design, the real rich don't do recessions - they just redecorate. That way, they are already prepared to entertain and amaze when the economy booms again.
Having survived the worst of what global markets could throw at them, it's hard to faze Hong Kong's designers with predictions of a slowdown in the mainland economy, or with the specter of competition from Chinese rivals.
At a more functional level, high-end designers have been pushing developers to customize flats by allowing buyers to choose from among a selection of floors, kitchens and the like. Designers hope to widen their wealthy client base that way.
Cheung Kong gave it a trial run with its Beacon Hill property in Kowloon Tong, where buyers could choose from among four types of flooring or ceramic tile for houses costing up to HK$14,000 per square foot.
Inevitably, a slower Chinese economy and the emergence of mainland competition will present challenges.
But Hong Kong designers plan to keep doing what they're best at and what has always seen them through in the past.
"It's a threat as they build up a name," said Equal's Lau of the competition. "But we will always target the top-end clients who are less concerned with price and more with brand and quality."
