Residential property

27 Feb 2013

In a report following measures in October last year, CBRE highlighted that "while the aim of the latest measures is to curb speculative activity in the residential market, some investors may now...

Housing rents seen to rise faster as new stamp duty hits home purchases

27 Feb 2013

Rents will rise at a faster pace in the second half of this year as demand for rental accommodation increases as a result of homebuyers hold off on making purchases while they digest the impact of...

Market for cheaper flats expected to recover faster than luxury segment

27 Feb 2013

Sales of homes worth HK$20 million or higher froze over the weekend, but demand among first-home buyers stayed healthy despite higher property tax as they took advantage of discounts.

Using guide and fine wines as a guide, Hong Kong flats prices likely to stall

27 Feb 2013

Figuring out a fair value for a Hong Kong home may seem like an elusive exercise, but to help with the task, Nomura Equity Research suggests comparing what is happening with local home prices to...

Homebuyers may face tougher mortgage stress test

20 Feb 2013

Miranda Kwok, the chief executive and president of China Construction Bank (Asia) in Hong Kong, said a tougher stress test would be an option for the regulators if the government got worried about...

Opinion

Wang Xiangwei

Super ministries may not be the right answer for mainland China

Alex Lo

Church developers remain unbowed by government rules

George Chen

A house is not a home until it becomes affordable

Flat sales down because of holiday

Just 88 flats were sold from February 11 to 17 on the 50 major housing estates in Hong Kong monitored by agency Ricacorp Properties, down 19 per cent from 108 the previous week.

'Rigid' demand for homes is more of a marketing myth than reality

While the human need for accommodation tends to be rigid, the need to buy a home is not. It is comparatively flexible, or "elastic" to use economics terminology.

Home sellers on mainland raise prices after holiday sales boom

Data from the China Index Academy, a unit of SouFun Holdings, shows 21 of 27 cities recorded a rise in sales from February 4 to 17 compared with the same period last year, with average prices in...

UNITED STATES

New US housing starts expected to have cooled in January, analysts say

Builders started work on 920,000 houses at an annual rate following December's 954,000 pace, which was the fastest since June 2008, according to the median forecast of 73 economists surveyed by...

RESIDENTIAL

Flat sales to remain buoyant after Lunar New Year, say agents

Sammy Po Siu-ming, a director of real estate agency Midland Realty, said that after the strong sales performance in January he expected developers to become more aggressive with launches of new...

CONCRETE ANALYSIS

Mainland property players still upbeat despite tougher conditions: survey

DTZ Research conducted a cross-sector and cross-regional survey of those with an interest in the mainland property market for their views on market demand in the New Year, their financing and...