Average home prices in Hong Kong hit another record
The Rating and Valuation Department's monthly price index of private housing climbed 2.6 percentage points from the previous record, set in May, to 249.8.
The government yesterday revealed Hong Kong's average home prices hit a record high in June, a day after Sun Hung Kai Properties began marketing the world's most expensive house per square foot in the city's exclusive Peak district.
The Rating and Valuation Department's monthly price index of private housing climbed 2.6 percentage points from the previous record, set in May, to 249.8.
The index is 4.1 per cent higher than its level of 240 in February last year, before government market-cooling measures announced on February 22 could affect property prices.
Chau Kwong-wing, a professor in the real estate and construction department at the University of Hong Kong, said he was not worried about the property market bubble bursting.
He said the high tax on buying second or subsequent homes had only increased buyers' transaction costs, and would not affect the fundamental problems of the property market.
"Home prices will be supported by low interest rates and the housing shortage. Besides strong demand from end-users, we have seen investors at home and from the mainland becoming active in recent months, and the government could further increase the 15 per cent buyer's stamp duty to remove the heat from the boiling property market," Chau said.
