PROPERTY market watchers have been testing the enthusiasm of end-users with the kind of intensity that a paramedic might check for vital signs on a poorly patient.
SG Warburg Securities has come up with a report suggesting investors need to watch one particular piece of the end-user cake in coming to any firm conclusions on the Hong Kong property market's heartbeat.
New residential property prices have come off more than 35 per cent since their peak in March last year.
In the year to date, the sector has seen a flurry of activity in a post-Lunar New Year rush.
This was reflected in last month's property sales where the Land Registry recorded 12,964 sales, up 73 per cent on March.
Property watchers are worried the post-Lunar New Year rush is dying out.
SG Warburg's analysis suggests all the recent excitement in residential property might have been focusing on the wrong buyers. Rather than watching the buying appetite of the new end-users coming into the market for the first time, a critical segment of the market that might have been ignored was secondary-market buyers.