"It's entirely a buyer's market so in order for developers to differentiate themselves they have to find new ways to promote their properties, HSBC Securities property analyst Derek Cheung says.
"The price is already very cheap so instead of competing on price they're competing on other value-added services."
Mike Wong, managing director of Ogilvy & Mather, says price and features are increasingly taking a backseat to the lifestyle changes that a property can offer buyers.
"They're not buying for speculation, they're buying it as a destination - they say 'this is my home', and when you're buying a home you want more than just features. You buy a promise of a life that you can actually enjoy, and a sense of belonging, which is very important."
The result is emotion-charged campaigns featuring beautiful people in beautiful outdoor settings that carry a sense of prestige and foreign exotica.
Commercials for Cheung Kong's Deer Hill Bay development show people in formal horse-riding attire riding through a forest and sighting deer in a clearing.
TVCs for Siena One in Discovery Bay tug at the heartstrings of young families with images of young boys playing outdoors, and shots of father and son watching waves crash on to the shore.
Cheung Kong's Nob Hill is described as being "a class above", while Sun Hung Kai's TVC for The Leighton Hill promotes it as a "shrewd choice, at the apex of art", and shows a vast English-style garden and an elaborate golden hallway in what is clearly a mansion - not a 1,200-square foot flat.
Sun Hung Kai's Park Island development, meanwhile, holds nothing back when it claims to be the first "habitat in Hong Kong to be completely free of pollution from vehicles.
"From the developer's perspective, to create this perception of a place for enjoyment and a healthy lifestyle takes minimal investment compared to price-cutting, and it can make a big difference in the minds of potential buyers.
"Before the Asian crisis, nobody cared about these thing as long as they could make a profit. But it's natural, given the kind of investment it takes to buy, to look for a comfortable, enjoyable environment, Cheung says.
Even the names of properties have changed with the times. In the old days, blocks were named with hopes for future wealth in mind - Fortune Plaza, Fortune Centre, Fortune Terrace and Prosperity Court to name just a few.
In contrast, more recent additions to the Hong Kong map conjure up images of holiday resorts or Mediterranean hideaways. In Discovery Bay, which has always had something of a resort feel about it anyway, there is La Serene, Neo Horizon and Siena One.
Sun Hung Kai has Ocean Shores, Park Island and liberte, while Cheung Kong has Banyan Garden, The Portofino, Monte Vista and the curiously named Caribbean Coast, which is promoted with pictures of a palm-lined sweep of white-sand beach and has areas within it called Bermuda, Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados and Cayman.
Wong, whose team created the campaign for Siena One, says all the advertising material for the development is aimed at young couples thinking of having children. It focuses on the kind of safe, outdoors and close-to-nature that the development offers, something parents would be hard-pressed to find in much of the rest of Hong Kong.
"Buyers are not just looking for their own life experience but also a home to raise their family in. That's why the campaign goes right into the emotional heart of the parents.
"These things really matter, especially for first-time buyers - they're particularly concerned about what they get out of it as a life experience."
