Overseas property news - Hong kong sellers slash prices as ftbs head overseas

Hong kong sellers slash prices as ftbs head overseas

Photo: Sanfamedia.com

Sellers of Hong Kong property are having to slash their prices to attract buyers, as the country continues to see house-hunters priced out of the expensive market.

Indeed, according to the latest Knight Frank Global House Price Index, Hong Kong has the fastest growing prices in the world, with values up 20.7 per cent in the last 12 months. As a result, local buyers are being priced out of the market, prompting both a shift in sentiment towards homeownership and home selling.

77.3 per cent of those interviewed by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong recently said that now is not the right time to buy a home, while 91.9 per cent regard prices to be too expensive.

Indeed, existing home sales are sliding, according to new figures.

"The number of weekly transactions in major housing estates has dived below 50 for six consecutive weeks. It is the longest dip in the past 20 years," Buggle Lau Kar-fai, chief analyst at Midland Realty, tells the SCMP.

New homes, on the other hand, are seeing sales rise, thanks to aggressive incentives and pricing strategies by developers keen to revive sales. Secondary owners, though, are having to lower their asking prices to attract attention.

Some first-time buyers are now looking overseas at more affordable options, according to Julie Harvey, Director of UK property investment specialist, Pinnacle Alliance.

The company is now opening an office in the city to take advantage of the growing interest.

With residential one bedroom apartments available from around £55,000 this is a fraction of what they would pay for something similar in Hong Kong," she tells OPP.Today. "We only sell UK property – but I am aware of investors also buying in Malaysia, Australia and Thailand."

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