Hong Kong’s property market is seeing more deals as buyers bet that the border with China reopening will help channel more capital into the territory and stoke a recovery.
The number of transactions in 35 major residential projects jumped to an eight-month high in the two weeks through Sunday, Midland Realty (美聯物業) said.
That is an encouraging sign for a market where combined new and used home sales slumped last year to the lowest level since at least 1996, data tracked by Centaline Property Agency (中原地產) showed.
The border between China and Hong Kong started to gradually reopen on Sunday after being effectively sealed since early 2020.
“The confirmation of the first phase of border opening can facilitate the exchange between the mainland and Hong Kong, bringing Hong Kong the long-absent Chinese capital,” said Sammy Po (布少明), chief executive officer of Midland’s home division. “It will stimulate the asset price to rise.”
Midland estimates that used home transaction registrations are to reach a seven-month high this month.
A family office with a Chinese background recently bought more than 10 apartments for about HK$100 million (US$12.8 million), said Edmund Pang (彭文浩), a senior district sales director at Midland whose team brokered the deals.
The buyer had been on the hunt for nearly five months, and news of the border reopening helped speed up their decision to purchase, Pang said.
“They think that both talent flow and economic activities will pick up between the two places soon,” he said.
Some analysts are already forecasting a recovery for Hong Kong’s residential sector.
Morgan Stanley expects peaking interest rates and a reduced exodus following the easing of travel curbs to support the market in the coming year.
The firm said that property prices would bottom out in the second quarter and eventually increase by 5 percent for the full year.
However, it is too early to say that the property market is headed for a recovery. It is unclear how much Chinese capital will flow into real estate following eased border controls.
Used home values in Hong Kong last year declined about 16 percent as borrowing costs increased along with a shrinking economy.
UNCERTAINTY: Innolux activated a stringent supply chain management mechanism, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure optimal inventory levels for customers Flat-panel display makers AUO Corp (友達) and Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that about 12 to 20 percent of their display business is at risk of potential US tariffs and that they would relocate production or shipment destinations to mitigate the levies’ effects. US tariffs would have a direct impact of US$200 million on AUO’s revenue, company chairman Paul Peng (彭雙浪) told reporters on the sidelines of the Touch Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday. That would make up about 12 percent of the company’s overall revenue. To cope with the tariff uncertainty, AUO plans to allocate its production to manufacturing facilities in
Taiwan will prioritize the development of silicon photonics by taking advantage of its strength in the semiconductor industry to build another shield to protect the local economy, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said yesterday. Speaking at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee, Liu said Taiwan already has the artificial intelligence (AI) industry as a shield, after the semiconductor industry, to safeguard the country, and is looking at new unique fields to build more economic shields. While Taiwan will further strengthen its existing shields, over the longer term, the country is determined to focus on such potential segments as
COLLABORATION: Given Taiwan’s key position in global supply chains, the US firm is discussing strategies with local partners and clients to deal with global uncertainties Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday said it is meeting with local ecosystem partners, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), to discuss strategies, including long-term manufacturing, to navigate uncertainties such as US tariffs, as Taiwan occupies an important position in global supply chains. AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) told reporters that Taiwan is an important part of the chip designer’s ecosystem and she is discussing with partners and customers in Taiwan to forge strong collaborations on different areas during this critical period. AMD has just become the first artificial-intelligence (AI) server chip customer of TSMC to utilize its advanced
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS