The Haunted House Market in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, a house designated as "haunted" may result in cost savings for buyers. Cvs pharmacy

According to a fascinating, if not unsettling, CNN article, properties where tragic tragedies have occurred — everything from natural death to suicide to murder — are generally priced 10 to 30 percent below market value. The houses are referred regarded as hongza, a Cantonese word that means "calamity house" but can also indicate "haunted" in the context of Hong Kong real estate.

The hongza label is an important property phrase since Chinese buyers are frequently superstitious and suspicious of homes with a shady past. According to CNN, Hong Kong real estate brokers are forced to divulge any information that could alter a property's value, which is producing market troubles.

Online databases that list properties with the hongza label dominate Hong Kong's haunted house business. However, certain Web sites, like as the popular hk-compass.com, do not identify exact addresses, which means that an hongza listing might effect the values of nearby homes and, in some cases, entire neighborhoods, CNN reports.

Patrick Fong, an apartment owner on the same floor as an hongza flat, told CNN, "I think they should make it clear, they shouldn't just list the entire level as haunted."

The websites are uncontrolled, and the government has shown little willingness to intervene. Professor Eddie Hui of Hong Kong Polytechnic University told CNN that the government will not intervene if "they don't think they can handle [the crisis] right now."

Agents are responsible for informing clients about the hongza designation. In a recent court case, a judge ruled in favor of a client who sued an agent, alleging that the agency failed to inform him of a property's haunted history before the sale.

"If an estate agent acting for a purchaser knows, or ought reasonably to have known, of the occurrence of a tragic incident in a property, and knows or ought reasonably to have known that this would materially affect the value of the property, that agent would owe a duty to alert its client to that fact," said judge Benjamin Yu in the decision. Mr. Yu stated that a property's value could drop by as much as 25% to 30% after a murder or suicide.