Hong Kong homebuyers beware: wait for better deals in second half of 2019
- Homes prices could fall by 10 per cent to 25 per cent next year
- Buying window to get best prices will be as little as six months, analysts say
Buyer’s tip: wait until the second half of the new year before purchasing a home in Hong Kong.
While prices have already begun to slide in the world’s least affordable housing market, experts say a mix of events in the first six months of 2019 will weigh down prices further. Savvy buyers should let those play out before taking the plunge, they say.
These include a fresh supply of both new private flats and subsidised flats, possible mortgage rate increases, and cuts in asking prices by sellers who want to lock in huge gains from a 28-month property bull market that ended in August and sent prices up by 44 per cent.
Analysts are predicting home prices could fall by 10 per cent to 25 per cent in Hong Kong next year. That would be a much softer and shorter downturn than the one-two punch delivered by the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2003 Sars epidemic, when prices plummeted 66 per cent between October 1997 and July 2003.
If the analysts are right, that means the buying window to get the lowest prices will be short – as little as six months before prices begin to recover.
“In the next six to seven months, a narrow window will open for first-time homebuyers and those regarding a Hong Kong flat as a long-term investment. It is all about timing,” said Letizia Garcia Casalino, head of residential services at Colliers International.