Chinese buyers of new homes are drawn out of Hong Kong
Due to the tight credit procedures, buyers from mainland China face more difficulties to invest in properties
For a second consecutive quarter, the share of investors from mainland China on the market for new properties in Hong Kong, is reduced due to the tight credit procedures and the return of local buyers, according to Midland Holdings Ltd., cited by Bloomberg.
For the first quarter of this year 36.8% of all new housing transactions were concluded with buyers from mainland China compared with 37.9 percent for the previous three months, announced the largest public real estate company in Hong Kong.
Deals with Chinese buyers reached 53.9% of all sales and purchases of new homes in Hong Kong in the third quarter of last year.
Since the beginning of 2009, housing prices in Hong Kong increased with 80 percent, due to record low mortgage rates, the shortage of new homes and the influx of Chinese buyers.
With the tightening of credit procedures, the access of Chinese buyers to loans for real estate investments is increasingly difficult. Experts also observe activation of the local buyers in Hong Kong, who were on hold during the last six months.
The growth of housing transactions in Hong Kong began to decelerate in the second half of last year; their number per month fell below 5500 for the eighth consecutive month, since July 2011 onwards. Before that, each month from March 2009 statistics register over 7 thousand transactions per month.
According to the Land Registry, transactions in Hong Kong rose to 11,358 in March, before falling dramatically to 8217 in April.
The value of sales of new homes by buyers from mainland China amounted to 7.9 billion Hong Kong dollars for the first quarter compared to 9.3 billion Hong Kong dollars in the previous quarter, according to data provided by Midland.
According to Savills Plc, the most expensive apartments in the world are in Hong Kong, the prices there are about 55% higher than in London. Moscow is 7.4% more expensive than London and New York is 15% cheaper, the company said.
