INVESTORS and property analysts are anxious about the impact on the traditional post-Lunar New Year recovery in home buying of the fifth rise in mortgage rates in less than a year.
With their new year bonuses firmly in their pockets, many workers would normally seize this opportunity to put down a deposit on a first home.
But with home prices falling and mortgage rates now having leapt 225 basis points to 10.75 per cent in less than a year, it looks like 1995 could be different.
Some property analysts yesterday argued that the rise had already been discounted by potential buyers; others were more downbeat.
The first test will be this weekend's sale of 48 flats at Kui Yan Court in Sai Ying Pun by the Land Development Corp (LDC); real estate agents are predicting a weak response.
During the registration period last week, the LDC received applications from only 19 people for the units on offer.
