Home sales rebounded significantly last week after confidence was boosted by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's announcement of a raft of housing measures, but analysts said the bounce was likely to be brief.
'The latest policy measures suggest the government is still supportive of the property sector and highly sensitive to the downside,' noted Samsung Securities' regional head of property Lee Wee Liat in a report.
'The resumption of the Home Ownership Scheme will not occur until the first batch of 2,500 units is ready for pre-sale in 2014 or 2015. We expect some post-policy volume bounce,' the report said.
Secondary transactions in the 50 largest private housing estates monitored by Ricacorp Properties rebounded from their previous week's low, with 140 deals in the week of October 10 to 16. This compares to 120 sales in the previous week, a rise of 11 per cent, and ends four consecutive weeks of declining sales.
The number of housing estates which recorded zero transactions almost halved to seven last week, from 13 a week earlier, Ricacorp said.
In the primary market, 99 units were sold over the weekend, more than the 84 units sold in the previous weekend, Samsung said. About 180 units in Marinella, a luxury project with 411 units developed by K Wah, Sino Land and Nan Fung in Aberdeen, have been sold or reserved by buyers for HK$6 billion since the project was launched last week.
'The fog has been cleared,' Ricacorp director David Chan said. 'Buyers have returned to the market because the measures in the policy address are moderate. Although there are some housing policy changes, Hong Kong people have digested the policy news and doubts about the market are cleared.'