As SHK cuts prices and investors cash out, Hong Kong wonders if housing market is at tipping point
Developer Sun Hung Kai has priced its latest residential project at the cheapest this year, while two big investors are selling large chunks of their portfolios
Hong Kong developer Sun Hung Kai Properties has put flats at one of its latest projects on sale at the cheapest prices this year, in a possible sign that the property market may be cooling in the world’s most expensive city to own a home.
Adding to the new note of caution are plans by two large property investors in the city to sell chunks of their commercial and residential holdings worth a combined HK$12.5 billion (US$1.6 billion). Analysts note headwinds including government measures to cool prices, volatile stock markets, global trade tensions and the prospect of interest-rate rises.
“The property market, including residential and offices, will be flattish with not much chance of a surge. There will be low single-digit growth at most,” said Raymond Cheng, head of Hong Kong and China research and property at CGS-CIMB Securities.
“Taking factors such as rising interest rates and the uncertain stock market outlook, the market has become less bullish than before. We are almost at the peak [of property prices].”
Sun Hung Kai, Hong Kong’s largest real estate firm, is offering 108 units at its Park Yoho Milano development in Yuen Long, in the northern New Territories, at an average price of HK$13,756 per square foot after discounts, about 10 per cent lower than prices for lived-in homes at its five-year-old Riva project nearby.