(By Yan Lunle)
After the announcement of the new Policy Address, the property market trading has significantly accelerated. Ng Yiu-cho from Centaline Property expresses, most properties on sale from blue-chip project Kingswood Villas in Tin Shui Wai conform to the latest mortgage term in 80% or 90%, benefiting from the Government’s relaxation of mortgage insurance plan, and this project has recorded 9 transactions after the Policy Address was announced, which is a significant rebound from 14 cases in the first half of the month . Looking back at the property market before the Policy Address, it can be described as "A Leaf in the Storm". The newly released Centa-City Leading Index (CCL) is 180.32 points, a 27-week low, and down 0.37% by week.
Tse lei-gun from Many Wells expresses, Government relaxed the upper limit property price under mortgage insurance plan for first-time buyers, immediately stimulating the buyer's desire to enter the market, for example, Kingswood Villas phase I that is Locwood Court recorded one immediate transaction with the buyer is a first-time buyer from another district, and the housing unit is low-rise room H in block 2 with the usable area in of 552 sq ft and the layout in three-bedroom and two halls, although the owner had risen the price by HKD50,000, but buyer still decided to purchase the mentioned unit at HKD5.8 million for self-occupation, besides the usable area sq ft price is HKD10,507, which is the market price. The original owner purchased the unit for about HKD3.2 million in 2014 and earned the profit of about HKD2.6 million or 81% after reselling.
Garden Rivera in Sha Tin also has two-bedroom unit owners who sold with markup after the Policy Address was issued. Tao Man-chun from Centaline Property points out that, it is a high-rise room 08 in block A of Garden Rivera, which is a two-bedroom unit in usable area of 242 sq ft, and the original owner had asked for HKD4.98 million, then cut HKD0.13 million to HKD4.85 million earlier, but rose the price by HKD0.05 million to HKD4.9 million and sold it after the Policy Address was issued. The original owner purchased the unit at HKD2.88 million at the end of 2013, earning book profit of HKD2.02 million or 70%.
The impact on property prices is expected to be reflected at the beginning of next month.
Although the pace of prospective buyers has accelerated recently, while the property market was being overwhelmed by a number of negative news before the Policy Address was issued, and local political events besides the Sino-US trade war continued to affect buyers' desire to enter the market, resulting in a continued decline in property prices. The Senior Co-director of Centaline Research Department, Woo Leung-sing points out that, the latest CCL is reported at 180.32 points, a 27-week new low and down 0.37% per week. Midland property price index is latest reported at 167.57 points, down about 0.27% per week. After the Policy Address was issued, the relevant impact will be reflected in the CCL announced in early November.
The Centaline points out that, the property price adjustment has continued and fallen by 5.3% from this year's high, and it is expected that the final adjustment will be about 10%, leading it to return to the level at the beginning of this year, that is, about 170 points.
