New homes dominate december in hong kong

Photo credit: Xopher Lance

Knight Frank's latest report on the region's real estate comments that despite the government's cooling measures designed to cool down the market, developers offering attractive benefits packages are enough to offset the impact.

The primary residential market was the most active property sector in the final month of last year, with new developments dominating activity. Now, in 2014, the government has already announced plans to release 12 new residential sites comprising a total of 5,500 apartments - "the largest number of sites and the highest estimate of production capacity since the launch of the quarterly land sale programme in 2011", notes Knight Frank.

In the year to March 2014, new home supply from land sales will have provided a total of 13,700 flats, the government forecasts.

Knight Frank's report also looks at the rest of the Hong Kong property market, commenting that Grade-A office leasing and sales remained sluggish, thanks to holiday season as well as official cooling measures. A number of retailers, meanwhile, continued to expand in major shopping districts.

Thomas Lam, Director and Head of Research & Consultancy, Greater China at Knight Frank, comments: "In 2014, we expect both home rents and prices to edge down."

Indeed, the report forecasts prime residential prices to drop by between 5 and 10 per cent, while the wider market will see values fall between 10 and 15 per cent.

"In the Grade-A office market, core business areas will see stable rents and slight drops in prices, while those in decentralised business areas will remain stable. Rents of stores on prime streets will remain stable, but their prices could drop slightly."