Hong Kong religious group sells US$14 million in property as home market perks up

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Jehovah’s Witnesses group has sold 16 units in Tseung Kwan O since July – 11 of them after banks cut interest rates in September

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The Ocean Shores development in Tseung Kwan O. Photo: Google Maps

Salina Li

Published: 4:46pm, 22 Oct 2024

A religious group is selling Hong Kong residential properties at an accelerated pace, cashing in HK$110 million (US$14 million) amid increasing activity in the housing market now that the cost of borrowing has started to decline.

Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, associated with the Christian denomination known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, sold 11 units at Ocean Shores in Tseung Kwan O after the Federal Reserve cut rates by a half percentage point in late September, according to Melissa Tsang, sales manager at Hong Kong Property.

The group sold five other units before the rate cut, in transactions as far back as July. It bought about 30 flats in 2013 for around HK$170 million, according to local media reports.

Hong Kong’s property market is showing increasingly positive signs after a long slump, with buyers swarming the biggest sales weekend in six months and developers raising prices as they sense improving sentiment.

The city’s largest commercial banks lowered their prime lending rates in September after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) cut its base rate to 5.25 per cent from 5.75 per cent, in lockstep with the Federal Reserve.

In his policy address last week, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu unveiled further steps to revive the market by easing mortgage financing rules to pre-2009 levels.

Homebuyers are now able to obtain as much as 70 per cent financing, regardless of the value or use of the property, according to the HKMA. The debt-servicing ratio has been raised to 50 per cent from 40 per cent, standardising the level for both residential and non-residential properties.