Hong Kong property sales hit 10-month high in March, agents say momentum to continue this month
- ‘Market sentiment improved rapidly and transaction volumes increased’ last month after Hong Kong scrapped its property cooling measures in February: Centaline executive
- Centaline, Ricacorp forecast that sales could breach 9,000 deals mark in April
Sales of new and second-hand homes, parking spots, shops, offices and industrial units jumped by more than half to 5,013 deals last month from 3,189 transactions in February, the highest tally since the 5,284 property deals recorded in May, according to Land Registry data. From a year ago, however, the number of deals was still down by about 42 per cent.
In terms of value, the property sales amounted to HK$37.37 billion (US$4.77 billion), a 65.5 per cent increase from the HK$22.58 billion worth of deals recorded in February, but 45.7 per cent lower than a year ago, according to Land Registry data. The sales last month were the most since the HK$39.7 billion worth of deals recorded in June last year.
The government figures align with forecasts made by Midland Realty and Centaline Property Agency, two of Hong Kong’s largest real estate agencies, which said on Tuesday that the total number of transactions last month could have breached the 5,000 deals mark.
“After the government withdrew the property curbs, the property market sentiment improved rapidly and transaction volumes increased,” said Roen Yeung, a senior associate director in Centaline’s research department.
Among the measures scrapped by Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po in his budget speech on February 28 were the Buyer’s Stamp Duty that targeted non-permanent residents and a New Residential Stamp Duty for second-time purchasers. Homeowners were also no longer required to pay a Special Stamp Duty if they sold their homes within two years. The decade-old measures were scrapped to boost a struggling property market.
