Mansion Global

Hong Kong Contradictions

Property sales fall almost 30% but prices hold strong

Save

It's mixed news for Hong Kong's real estate market.

Andi Andreas / Getty Images
It's mixed news for Hong Kong's real estate market.
Andi Andreas / Getty Images

It’s something of a roller coaster ride for the residential real estate market in the Fragrant Harbour. PropertyWire reports on new data from the Land Registry and Knight Frank that shows sales falling by nearly 30% in Hong Kong while prices are posting moderate gains. Figures from the Land Registry shows a 27.8% drop in transactions in August from the previous month and according to international real estate firm Knight Frank this was due to weakened demand caused by the slump in both the Mainland and local stock markets. However, home prices still recorded minor growth, due to strong end user demand and Knight Frank expects prices to remain firm for the rest of the year. Indeed the firm is predicting that at the top end luxury property prices are likely to grow between 2% and 5% this year while the rest of the market could see price growth of 5% to 8%.

A recent report from global bank UBS, citing rising unemployment, declining tourism interest from mainland China and stock market turmoil, predicted that Hong Kong property prices could fall by 30% by 2017. [PropertyWire]