2024-04-25 28Hse Editor
(Lai Tsz-tin) With nearly 50,000 professionals coming to work in Hong Kong, the property rental market is in great demand, mainly from corporate executives and technical professionals. According to the Centa-City Rental Index, 21 estates recorded a rent increase of more than 5 per cent per square foot in May (see table). Hong Kong Island accounted for the largest number of estates with nine, including Beverly Hills, which recorded the biggest increase of 22.3 per cent in one month.
Centa-City Rental Index hits 15-month high
Yang Ming-yi, senior associate director at Centaline’s research department, said that rental prices would continue to climb. In May, the Centa-City Rental Index (CRI) recorded 112.78 points, up 1.4 per cent month-on-month, the largest increase since August 2018. The results surpassed last August's summer high of 112.76 points, and reached a 15-month high, returning to the February 2022 level. The bank expects to see an early arrival of the peak rental season as students and professionals have recently started to pre-let their flats, spurring an increase in the number of lettings.
Of the 138 Centa-City Index housing estates in Hong Kong, a total of 21 housing estates saw their rents increase by more than 5 per cent in May. Nine of them were on Hong Kong Island, with The Beverly Hills registering a 22.29 per cent month-on-month increase, the biggest in Hong Kong. Other housing estates included four in Kowloon, six in the New Territories East and only two in the New Territories West.
According to Willy Liu Wai-keung, chief executive at Ricacorp Properties, the government has been vigorously promoting talent attraction this year. It is believed that in the coming months, the number of mainland professionals approved to migrate will continue to come to Hong Kong, while the number of talents under Hong Kong’s talent admission schemes continues to grow. With the arrival of professional talent in Hong Kong, housing demand will inevitably increase. In the short term, residential rents will be the first to rise, which will in turn benefit the property market.
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