US League: Hong Kong's new property market continues to be low in the number of cases of first-hand private homes

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Lau Ka-fai, chief analyst at Midland Property, pointed out that the Hong Kong new property market has seen a recovery since the Lunar New Year. First-hand trading is improving, the housing market atmosphere has improved markedly, and the tart order cases have continued to be at a low level. The number of first-hand private home tart orders in February was 29, a slight increase of only 1 case month-on-month compared to 28 cases in January, but it was still nearly half a year low. In fact, the number of cases last month decreased by about 70% compared to the high number of 118 cases in March last year. Compared with the average of 46 cases per month for the full year of last year, it is also about 37% lower. In fact, the number of first-hand private home tart orders in recent months is at a low level.

The climate in the Hong Kong new property market has improved in recent months. In February, the first-hand sales volume rose to a four-month high of more than 1,200 units. At the end of February, the budget announced a sharp reduction in stamp duty for properties of HK$4 million or less to HK$100, further stimulating the outstanding performance of the first-hand market. According to Midland Property data, in just 10 days of March, 1,100 first-hand transactions were recorded, which is equivalent to about 90% of the full month of February.

Apart from improving market conditions, the recent tart order situation has slowed down. I believe this is related to the new guidelines introduced by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority last year. In June of last year, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued guidelines indicating that up to 70% mortgage loans can be obtained for private use and residential properties signed before the end of February 2024. In December of last year, guidelines were issued to banks to allow eligible users (private homes with contracts signed from 2021 to 2023 and paid during the construction period) to obtain up to 80% mortgage loans, and the “contribution-to-income ratio” limit was raised to 60%. I believe the relevant guidelines are one of the reasons for the easing of orders in recent months.

If you add up the past 2 months, a total of 57 first-hand cases were recorded, a decrease of about 9.5% compared with 63 cases in the same period last year. If divided according to tart details and tart orders, 18 tarts were ordered in detail (accounting for about 31.6%) and 39 tarts were ordered (accounting for about 68.4%). It can be seen that tarts were mainly ordered in large tarts. If 39 first-hand tart cases were divided according to the year of purchase, the largest number was purchased in 2023, with 13 cases recorded (accounting for about 33.3%); followed by 2024 purchases, which recorded 11 cases (accounting for about 28.2%); on the other hand, in the first 2 months of this year, only 6 cases were purchased in 2021 with high property prices.