Home-purchase confidence in Hong Kong nosedives as property prices continue to climb
City University poll also shows dip in confidence in consumer prices last quarter
Home-purchase confidence in Hong Kong took a nosedive of about 21 per cent last quarter as already sky-high property prices continued to rise despite a recent drastic increase in the punitive stamp duty.
According to a poll of 1,007 participants by the statistical consulting unit of City University’s Department of Management Sciences last month, confidence about home buying plunged to 45.1 points, compared to 57 in the third quarter of last year. This was also the lowest confidence level recorded in 2016.
A score of below 100 points, on a scale of 200, means respondents were dissatisfied with the spending market.
“The findings showed Hong Kong consumers’ biggest worry was still about home buying,” said pollster Geoffrey Tso Kwok-fai, associate professor in the university’s Department of Management Sciences.
Despite a drastic increase in the stamp duty on property transactions for non-first-time buyers to 15 per cent from 1.5 per cent in November, he said, property prices had not been reined in so far.