HK homebuyers beat mainlanders to discounts

The proportion of new small and medium-sized homes in Hong Kong bought by mainlanders dropped 11 percentage points in the last quarter of 2011 as developers offered discounts to draw more Hong Kong home seekers into the market, a survey conducted by Centaline Property Agency shows.

The decline saw the share of new homes worth less than HK$12 million sold to mainland buyers fall to 24.3 per cent of total new-home sales in the fourth quarter, from 35.5 per cent in the third quarter. By value, mainland buyers' share of sales of small and medium-sized new flats dropped to 25.5 per cent in the fourth quarter, from 38.2 per cent in the third.

'The absolute number of mainland buyers in the sector has seen no big change.

'The decline in percentage terms was mainly because several new projects were launched for pre-sale at short notice and Hong Kong people dominated the sales,' said Wong Leung-sing, an associate research director at Centaline.

'That dragged down the proportion of mainland buyers in the period,' said Wong, who expects mainlanders' appetite for buying Hong Kong homes to be undiminished this year.

November saw the release of projects including the third phase of Festival City in Tai Wai, where flats were offered for sale at an average of HK$8,109 per square foot - 20 per cent lower than the prices at which flats in phases one and two were sold.

Hongkongers bought 70 per cent of the phase three flats, developer Cheung Kong said; the remaining 30 per cent of buyers came from the mainland.