The property market in Hong Kong is recovering with figures showing a steady increase in sales and prices while the news that the recession has ended is expected to boost the real estate sector further.
Data from the Land Registry of Hong Kong indicate that increased liquidity and growing optimism in the market place is having a positive effect. The number of sales transactions in the Hong Kong residential market remained active during the period between the second half of June 2009 and the first half of July.
The number of transactions increased 20.5% month on month to 15,747 in June that is some 95.2% above the 12 month moving average of 8,067.
And according to the University of Hong Kong Real Estate Index Series prices increases 3.6%. The volume of property available is also increasing with 637 residential units being launched between the middle of June and the middle of July with the overall take up rate a respectable 81%.
According to analysts the improvement in the property market is due to a number of real estate investors taking advantage of bargain prices and anticipating that the sector has bottomed out.
In some developments, including Lake Silver in Shatin, the New Territories, and Lime Habitat in North Point, Hong Kong Island, new units were 100% absorbed. In anticipation of the sustained low-interest rate environment and a global recovery before the end of 2009, the local residential property market is predicted to stage further growth.
But due to asset price inflation Hong Kong residential property prices are likely to remain volatile over the near term. We can only hope that investors have learned lessons from the past rise and fall of Hong Kong property prices and perhaps they will be a little more selective in the future. There is no better reminder about the risks of investing in real estate than being hit in the pocket – a feeling we will all have experienced at some point.