Property sales slump in hong kong

Photo: Sanfamedia.com

The city's housing market recovered slightly in September, according to figures from the Land Registry, but transactions in October reversed once again, plunging to a 19-month low.

Sales were 43.63 per cent lower than October 2014, even more severe than the 31.6 per cent annual drop recorded in September 2015, with agency Midland Realty branding it as the worst October since 1991.

Sales fell 17.85 per cent in real terms month-on-month, cancelling out a 5.2 per cent improvement in September.

Nonetheless, the government continues to increase land supply in Hong Kong, with supply levels set to rise to an 11-year high in the coming years.

"We have put more land into the market through changing land use ... our efforts have started to have an effect," said Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.

"There were 2,035 transactions recorded in the secondary market," Derek Chan, head of research at agent Ricacorp Properties, told the SCMP. "The situation was even worse than … when Hong Kong was hit by the severe acute respiratory syndrome [Sars] outbreak in 2003."