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Hong Kong home prices fell 15.6 per cent in 2022, ending 13-year rising trend

  • The 15.6 per cent decline in the lived-in home price index last year was the biggest since a 32.5 per cent plunge during the Asian financial crisis in 1998
  • The index fell for a seventh month in December for its longest losing streak since the Sars outbreak in 2003

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Home prices in Hong Kong, one of the world’s least affordable cities to own a home, fell for the first time since 2008. Photo: Sam Tsang
Home prices in Hong Kong fell last year by the most since the Asian financial crisis, as more than two years of coronavirus pandemic curbs helped end a 13-year rising trend. A recovery in market-related wealth may herald a quick recovery this year, some analysts said.
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An index tracking live-in home prices sank 15.6 per cent in 2022 from a year earlier, according to data released by the Rating and Valuation Department on Friday, the most since the 32.5 per cent plunge in 1998. That included a seventh month of declines in December, the longest losing streak since the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2003.

The index has slumped 16.5 per cent since hitting a record high in September 2021. Flats measuring 431 sq ft to 752 sq ft fell the most last year at 16.1 per cent, including a 2.2 per cent drop in December.

The city’s economy fell into a recession, with output shrinking at an annual rate of 3.3 per cent in the first nine months last year. Exports tanked while local businesses slumped under one of the toughest Covid-19 curbs in the world. An exodus of expatriates also weakened demand and prices for homes in the city.
People walk past residential property advertisements displayed at a property agency in Taikoo. Photo: Dickson Lee
People walk past residential property advertisements displayed at a property agency in Taikoo. Photo: Dickson Lee

The market should, however, begin to rebound as a rally in stock prices boosts equity wealth and China’s zero-Covid pivot shores up investor confidence, according to Lee Shu-kam, head of the economics and finance department at Shue Yan University. The reopening of borders earlier this month could also attract fresh capital to the property market, analysts said.

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