Sales of homes under HK$3m continue to fall as prices rise
The number of flats being sold at or below HK$3 million continues to decline as Hong Kong home prices continue to rise.
The number of flats being sold at or below HK$3 million continues to decline as Hong Kong home prices continue to rise.
According to the latest research by property consultant DTZ, there were 660 home transactions below HK$3 million last month, representing 11 per cent of total residential sales.
That compares with 1,233 transactions in June last year, which represented 21 per cent of the total residential sales volume.
"Sales of homes with a smaller lump-sum price shrank in the second quarter, the percentage of which fell to around 10 per cent of all home transactions, because of a general increase in property prices," Alva To, DTZ's managing director in Hong Kong, said
A similar picture was revealed in a survey by Centaline Property Agency which found the ratio of sub-HK$3 million homes fell to 15.4 per cent of total residential sales in the secondary market in May, compared with 27.2 per cent in the same month last year.
According to Centaline's CCL Index, home prices in the secondary market rose 8.4 per cent in the first half of this year. In the primary market, sales of residential units continued to be robust.
In the first half of the year, developers registered HK$90 billion in sales from 8,507 units, up 43 per cent year on year in value and 24 per cent in volume, according to Barclays.
The secondary market registered HK$142 billion in transactions, with 21,709 units changing hands. This represented a 48 per cent increase in value and 20 per cent rise in volume, the investment bank said.
Large units started to reverse their previous underperformance against small units.
According Centaline, large flat prices have risen 4.4 per cent, compared with a 3.6 per cent rise in small and medium-sized flat prices, since the government announced mortgage tightening measures targeting properties priced at less than HK$7 million on February 27.
