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Property News Weekly Digest
2022/8/20
〈The Standard, Aug 20, 2022〉More homeowners suffered losses early this month after offloading new homes bought just a few years ago as interest rate rises saw a willingness to accept price reductions.

The secondary market saw in the first 10 days of the month about 20 homes sold off at prices lower than those that the owners had paid for them just three or four years ago, with the losses ranging from

A home at Mantin Heights in Ho Man Tin saw the biggest loss.

The flat, a high-rise unit of 1,477 square feet that comes with one car park space, went for HK$49.8 million, or HK$33,717 per square foot - HK$10.4 million less than the owner paid in 2018.

The largest of the homes by size that sold is at Mount Pavilia in Sai Kung. The three-bedroom home of 1,599 sq ft, which came with a car space, went for HK$27.8 million, or HK$17,386 psf. The owner lost HK$5.1 million after having had the property for four years.

〈The Standard, Aug 19, 2022〉Luxury estates in Mid-Levels Central and Southern district are suffering amid rental pressures as global firms cut housing allowances for senior management or relocate some staff out of Hong Kong amid the fifth wave of the pandemic.

The vacancy rate for luxury homes in the two areas on the Island climbed about 10 percent to 285 units from before the fifth wave of the pandemic, property agents said.

Flats with asking rents from HK$60,000 to HK$100,000 per month accounted for more than 60 percent of the vacancies, or 185, amid the lower demand, said Dave Ma Tai-yeung, chief operating officer and director for Kowloon at Hong Kong Property.

Their rents declined about 3 to 8 percent to between HK$56,000 and HK$99,000 each month, resulting in luxury homes of sizes between 1,107 and 1,674 square feet being leased below market prices, according to the agents.

〈Hong Kong Business, Aug 18, 2022〉Hong Kong recorded 3,671 home sales transactions in July, lower than the 4,826 deals in the previous month as faster-than-expected rate hikes dampened buying sentiment, according to JLL.

In a report, JLL said the average mortgage rate hit the cap at 2.5% by month end, whilst mass residential capital values dipped at 0.5% month-on-month in July.

A notable transaction in July involved a house at No. 15 Shouson in Shouson Hill which was sold for $870.2m. On the government side, a residential site at Hospital Road was awarded to K. Wah Group for $551m.

JLL added that sales performance of new launches varies amongst projects, with The Vin in Cheung Sha Wan by Carrianna Group and Choice Holdings selling only 40% of the 50 units it launched.

〈Asian Post, Aug 17, 2022〉The net effective rent of offices in Hong Kong dropped 0.1% MoM to $57.2 per square foot in July, data from JLL showed.

The decline in rents was also observed across major office submarkets in the city like Central and Wanchai, and Causeway Bay which posted a 0.1% MoM and 0.2% MoM drop in rents, respectively.

Net effective rent in Tsim Sha Tsui, on the other hand, rose by 0.3% MoM.

Meanwhile, despite vacancy rising to 9.6% in July, the market still recorded net absorption of 217,000 sq ft, mainly due to the completion of a government building in Kai Tak.

〈China Business, Aug 16, 2022〉Chinese property developers' cash flows — a sign of the companies' ability to stay afloat — shrank this year after steady growth over the last decade, according to Oxford Economics.

Developer cash flows through July are down 24% year-on-year on an annualized basis, according to analysis from the firm's lead economist, Tommy Wu.

That's a sharp slowdown from growth for nearly every year since at least 2009, the data showed. Total funding as of July was 15.22 trillion yuan ($2.27 trillion) on an annualized basis, versus 20.11 trillion yuan in 2021.

The drop comes as credit demand in China missed expectations in July, and property developers' struggles drag on.

About two years ago, Beijing started to crack down on developers' high reliance on debt for growth.