Hong Kong’s Q1 home buying fever soars to record as buyers splashed out HK$47.5 billion
But experts now predict a slowdown after new policy sees first-time buyers of multiple units in one contract hit with 15pc stamp duty for each flat bought
Hong Kong’s home buying fever continued unabated in the first quarter, after purchasers splashed out a record HK$47.5 billion (US$6.11 billion) on new apartments – the biggest buying spree ever, according to the latest figures from Midland Realty, the city’s only listed property agent.
But industry experts are now predicting the trend to slow considerably, after the Hong Kong government new policy last week, whereby any local first-time buyer of multiple units in one contract must now pay a 15 per cent stamp duty for each flat bought, finally closing a legal loophole left open since November.
In the first three months of 2017, there were more than 3,580 registered transactions in the primary residential market, almost tripling from 1,323 deals in the same period in 2016.
“It is the highest transaction value for new flats in first quarter since we started collecting the data in 1996, when only the government offered a breakdown of the numbers for residential and commercial transactions,” said Midland’s chief analyst Buggle Lau Ka-fai.
He attributed the hefty increase to the steep rise in home prices, which have encouraged developers to speed up their marketing for new project launches.
Year-on-year, the total transaction value of new private flats jumped 180.8 per cent from HK$16.91 billion in 2016, it said, another record-breaking performance.