Sales of homes on the secondary market rebounded to a nine-week high in the week ended July 15, despite the cautionary signal sent by developers' poor response to recent land sales.
Analysts believe the MTR Corporation's decision last week to withdraw from sale a residential site at Tai Wai station in the New Territories, and the sale of the former North Point Estate site for a lower-than-expected HK$6.91 billion, will weigh on market sentiment.
The MTR Corp withdrew the Tai Wai site because it saw the bids as too low, while analysts had expected the North Point site - bought by Sun Hung Kai Properties - to sell for between HK$7.21 billion and HK$8.46 billion.
Buyers disregarded those concerns and 249 sales were recorded in the 50 housing estates monitored by Ricacorp Properties from July 9 to 15 - up 31 per cent on the 190 deals concluded in the previous week.
But Cusson Leung Kai-tong, an equity analyst at investment bank Credit Suisse, said he did not think the rebound was sustainable.
'The unemployment rate will increase in the second half following the slowdown in the economy, in retail sales and exports. That will dampen people's interest in buying a home,' he said.
Buyer sentiment was positive last week, however, and the Ricacorp data showed a strong rebound in sales, led by gains on Hong Kong Island, where 38 deals were concluded in the nine major estates, up from 23 the previous week. Taikoo Shing, Kornhill and Nan Fung Sun Chuen in Quarry Bay performed the best, with a total of 25 flats at the three estates changing hands, up threefold on the eight deals a week earlier.