Hong Kong property market deals near low for the year

Home sales in Hong Kong dipped to close to the year's low last week, with just 107 transactions recorded in the secondary market in the major 50 housing estates in Hong Kong.

Data from Ricacorp Properties, which monitors weekly sales in the estates, showed deal numbers for November 19 to 25 were down 32 per cent from the 157 deals recorded during in the previous week.

That was close to the year's low of 63 sales recorded in week to January 29. In seven of the estates in Kowloon and the New Territories there were no transactions.

Ricacorp director David Chan said: "Potential buyers have a wait-and-see attitude towards the market since the government released the measures."

Meanwhile, just 23 new homes were sold over the weekend, according to investment bank BNP Paribas, down from 27 the previous weekend. Half of the deals were for flats at The Reach in Yuen Long, developed by Henderson Land and New World. On sale were 28 flats at an average price of HK$7,318 per square foot.

Of the 12 flats sold, two were reportedly bought by non-local buyers, who must pay the 15 per cent stamp duty on non-local buyers introduced on October 26 as part of government measures to cool down the homes market.