Hong Kong property investors switch search to overseas markets

A growing number of Hong Kong property investors are shifting their investment focus offshore - prompting local brokers to widen their sales' lists in order to capture commissions on deals taking place overseas.

"There has definitely been a pick-up in buyer interest in overseas properties in recent months. Inquiries for international residential properties are up by 10 per cent since the government announced its latest control measures on the market in February," said Denis Ma On-ping, local director of the Greater Pearl River Delta Research at agency Jones Lang LaSalle.

In a bid to offset a reduction in commission incomes caused by the sharp fall in domestic home sales, property agency Centaline has begun to introduce overseas residential projects for sale in Hong Kong. It has held exhibitions to introduce projects in Vancouver and London to local buyers over the last two weeks.

David Hui, general manager for mainland and overseas' sales at the agency said some 30 flats at Island - a project in Croydon, in the south of London - had been reserved by local buyers; and another 13 flats were reserved in the Vancouver project, River Green.

"The response from local buyers was even better than we have seen for mainland projects," he said. Many local buyers were cash rich, said Hui, but put off from buying in the local property market by the cooling measures.

"The investment cost of buying a flat in our overseas projects is about a couple of million dollars only, and about 60 to 70 per cent of the buyers are first-time owners of properties in London or Canada."