(By Yan Lunle)
The newly COVID-19 confirmed cases in Hong Kong has been in single digit, leading an optimism in the market and the property market trading has stabilized. Centaline Property had recorded the transactions in ten leading housing estates of the past weekend with 17 cases, a decrease of 3 cases per week. Still, the number has maintained at a double-digit level for two weeks. The APAC Vice President and Residential Department President of Centaline Property, Chen Wing-Kit expresses that the recent eased epidemic and improved market sentiment drive the property market to stable, and buyers are coming out to buy houses.
Midland property statistics show that the transactions in ten leading blue-chip housing estates in the past weekend were 21 cases, a slight drop by about 4.5%. The Chief Executive of the Midland Real Estate Residential Department, Po Siuming points out that the activities of viewing houses have increased in recent days under proper protection measures took by the front line agents, although the Hong Kong "Restriction of Gathering" is still in effect. He expresses that buyers who have real housing needs are actively looking for the ideal houses, driving the transactions in ten leading housing estates on the weekend to maintain in double-digit level.
Transactions with price reduction are the most in the market.
He continues to point out that the sales of the first-hand property inventory have been well in recent days, and there are some projects which had sold in the form of tenders launch in the way of price lists. The first-hand property market supplies inventory units mostly, and the performance of second-hand property trading has been stable and positive. The continued released purchasing power pushes up the transactions. However, the property prices are still under pressure, and it is predicted deals with price cuts will still be the lead in the market.
Liao Wai-Keung, the President of Ricacorp Properties, is more optimistic about the market outlook, pointing out that the transactions will be stimulated to rise again as developers launching more first-hand properties if the "Restriction of Gathering" will be canceled in the future. Both prices and transactions would be re-recorded an increase in the next two to three weeks. In the overall market outlook, buyers are now regaining confidence, and there is no further large price cut after a round of price reductions by the owners.
Liao Wai-Keung believes that the most important thing now is launching large-scale first-hand housing estate in the market to drive up an increase in market turnover. Chen Wing-Kit believes the physical assets are most value-preserving in a low-interest-rate environment when countries all over the world have introduced Quantitative Easing. Citizens are stimulated to enter the market, leading to a predicted booming trend in the property market.
OCEAN MARINI additionally launches properties at original prices.
It is understood that Ricacorp recorded in the ten leading housing estates on the weekend with 22 transactions, an increase of 1 weekly. Hong Kong Property Services recorded 21, a decrease of about 19% weekly.
Developers have also stepped up the pace of property sales to recover lost time as the epidemic is easing. Wheelock announces to additionally launch the No.6 price list of 51 units in OCEAN MARINI, LOHAS Park, Tsueng Kwan. They are two-to-four-bedroom units and feature units in Block 1 (1A and 1B), with the usable area of 525-1,062 sq ft. The developer provides a maximum discount of 22.1%. The discounted sale prices are HKD8.706-18.054 million, with the sq ft prices at HKD15,551-21,323, and the average sq ft price is HKD16,705.
The developer emphasizes that the prices are original price, excluding the factors such as the landscape and floors, and the discounted market value of this batch is HKD530 million. The subscription registrations began yesterday.
The developer also points out that the project has sold since its launch in March, a total of 274 units, accounting for about 88% of the 310 units available for sale, and cashed in more than HKD2.42 billion.
Seventy-four first-hand property units had been sold in two days.
Besides, China Evergrande put on sale 269 units of Emerald Bay Phase 2, a new project in So Kwun Wat, Tuen Mun, a few days ago, 29 units were sold in two days, accounting for 10% of the units available for sale. In the past two days on the weekend, a total of 74 first-hand property transactions were recorded, of which Emerald Bay Phase 2 accounted for nearly 40%.
