Hong Kong Property

Foreign buyers of Hong Kong homes help drive price rebound

A surge in purchases of Hong Kong homes by non-residents offers one explanation for what's driven an 11 per cent rebound in property prices from a March bottom. In September, 250 homes were sold to non-resident foreigners, the most in 14 months and 36 per cent higher than the average for the previous four months, according to data from Hong Kong's Inland Revenue Department. That compares with a low of...

Hong Kong private-home completions set to hit 10-year high

The number of private-home completions in Hong Kong this year will reach its highest since 2004, said the government yesterday, further pressuring developers after a series of cooling measures forced them to cut prices. The number of flats forecast for completion this year is around 17,610 — a 113 per cent increase from a year earlier, said the Rating and Valuation Department. The government said...

Mainland Chinese rush to sell HK luxury homes

Cash-strapped Chinese are scrambling to sell their luxury homes in Hong Kong and some are knocking up to a fifth off the price for a quick sale as a liquidity crunch looms on the mainland. Wealthy Chinese were blamed for pushing up property prices in Hong Kong, where they accounted for 43 per cent of new luxury home purchases in the third quarter of 2012, before a tax hike on foreign buyers was...

Hong Kong’s cooling measures force real estate agents out of jobs

Ms Chu Kin Lan has already closed six out of 11 offices of her Hong Kong real estate agency, whose Chinese name translates as Precious Prosperity, and let go of half of her 70 employees amid the city’s toughest curbs on home buying in its history. But the worst pain may be still to come. As many as 10,000 real estate agents are forecast to lose their jobs, according to Centaline Property Agency, as...

Price surge in Hong Kong, China deters land purchases: Li Ka-shing

Companies controlled by Mr Li Ka-shing, Asia’s richest man, have slowed land purchases in Hong Kong and China, as prices have escalated to what he said are unhealthily high levels. “Land prices in Hong Kong are high and already showing signs of an unhealthy situation. Land prices in China have surged, and we’re unable to win auctions for land,” he said, according to a statement yesterday from...

House on The Peak sold at second-highest price in HK

Hutchison Whampoa, the conglomerate controlled by Mr Li Ka-shing, Asia’s richest man, has sold a house in Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak for HK$740 million (S$119 million). The 6,863 sq-ft house at the seven-home, 28 Barker Road project was sold to an unidentified buyer, according to the developer’s website. The price is the second-highest paid in the city after a house on Pollock’s Path in The Peak...

Property agents in Hong Kong hit hard by cooling measures

Thousands took to the streets earlier in Hong Kong this month to protest against the government's recent property tax hikes. Made up mainly of property agents and disgruntled home-buyers, they are angry at the government for doubling the stamp duty on property transactions since February to around 5.5 per cent. Protest organiser Raymond Ho argued the cooling measures are hitting the innocent. Ho...

Hong Kong home prices decline most since 2008: Centaline

Hong Kong home prices fell the most in four-and-a-half years in the week ended July 7, on concerns that interest rates will begin to rise if the US Federal Reserve phases out its monetary easing program later this year, the Bloomberg news agency reported. Prices fell 1.8 per cent during the week, the most since November 2008, according to an index compiled by Centaline Property Agency, the city’s...

Hong Kong developers seen slowing home sales to control prices

Developers are expected to put the brakes on home sales for the rest of the year after government curbs to rein in prices sapped demand, according to BOCOM International Holdings and Centaline Property Agency. “The pace of sales will remain slow unless there’s something encouraging developers to turn over assets faster,” said Mr Alfred Lau, a Hong Kong-based analyst at BOCOM. He added that they...

Hong Kong unveils more cooling measures

The territory’s government yesterday announced comprehensive curbs in an attempt to arrest the exuberance in the property market that it warned could destabilise its economy. The measures come a month after Singapore unveiled wide-ranging measures to cool property prices. Beginning today, Hong Kong will double the stamp duty to as high as 8.5 per cent of the property value for certain transactions,...

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