Property market in Hong Kong stable at beginning of 2018

Residential property sales in Hong Kong remained relatively stable in January, down 1.3% month on month in what is usually a quite part of the year, the latest analysis report suggests.

However, year on year sales are up by 60.4% and prices were up 1.4% month on month with one luxury apartment selling for HK$130,000 per square foot, according to the monthly report from international real estate firm Knight Frank.

Prices have now increased for 21 months in a row, according to latest official statistics. The accumulated growth reached 14.8% over 2017 and Jardine’s Lookout and Happy Valley recorded the most notable growth in prime home prices last month.
The lettings market was also slow in January but is expected to pick up in the Spring around March and April. Rents in all major luxury residential districts remained stable in January.

‘While luxury units available for lease will remain limited, demand is likely to be sustained. As such, we forecast that luxury residential rents will see further growth, by a mild single digit magnitude over 2018,’ the report says.

It also points out that there has been a trend where expat families relocate away from traditional luxury residential districts to other areas, such as Tai Po and Tseung Kwan O, where new international schools have opened or will be opening.

‘The availability of school places and their proximity to new CBDs, coupled with comprehensive facilities and convenient transportation, make these areas increasingly favourable to expatriate families,’ the report explains.