Hong Kong secondary home sales plunge to Sars-era levels
Property firms may lose one-third of branches and workforce if government cooling measures continue, says Midland as it posts big profit rise
Secondary home sales have fallen to their lowest levels since the Sars outbreak in 2003, sparking a warning that the city's real estate industry is headed for troubled times.
"There were only about 3,000 transactions in the secondary home market [last month], similar to that during the Sars period," the company's deputy chairman Angela Wong Ching-yi said during a press conference on the firm's annual results yesterday.
"Back then, there were only 14,800 property agents, meaning five brokers fought for one deal. But now, there are 37,000 employees in the industry, which means 10 agents have to compete for one transaction a month. Nearly 90 per cent will not have any deals."
There were about 5,800 deals per month last year.
Wong said that if the government maintained its tightening measures to check soaring prices, 30 per cent of all property agents, or 12,000 employees, would lose their jobs. Close to one-third of the agencies would be forced to shut down, leaving only 4,500 branches in the market.
Her comments came as the company reported an 87 per cent increase in net profit to HK$249.83 million for last year. Turnover grew 15 per cent to HK$3.91 billion.