Developers could defer project launches as sentiment sours
New flats likely to stay off market as stamp-duty increase and imminent rise in borrowing costs keep homebuyers on sidelines
Hong Kong developers are expected to defer the marketing launches of an estimated 3,500 flats as buying sentiment is souring quickly on concerns over the stamp-duty increase, applied to curb price growth, and an imminent rise in United States interest rates, industry experts warn.
Prospective buyers stayed on the sidelines over the weekend, cutting the number of secondary-market transactions to single digits among the city’s four leading agents over the weekend, the sixth consecutive month of declines.
Bocom property analyst Alfred Lau said the new stamp duty had a significant impact on primary market sales volume last month, which saw just 570 transactions, a drastic 75 per cent fall.
“We believe developers will postpone new launches to [next year] unless they sell at a discount like Hang Lung’s Long Beach development [in Tai Kok Tsui],” he said.
Hang Lung managed to sell all 62 units at Long Beach on Saturday after the project relaunched at a 23 per cent discount. The developer will release a further 80 units with prices 1.5 per cent higher.
The upcoming sales of five residential projects offered 3,477 flats, most at the former airport site at Kai Tak and West Rail’s Tsuen Wan West station, agents said.