Centaline: Premium residential units see new lows in pricing
A regional real property agency observed that prices of local premium residential units have recently experienced a new low.
In the statement, Centaline Property recapped that a relatively large 3,000-square-feet residential unit located within the One Grantai estate had seen a new 10-year low. The price has dropped to about HKD5,500 per square feet, a figure that is about 40% of 2007’s market price.
Lo Chon Meng, the realtor’s director for Taipa premium region’s operations, added in the statement that a recent transaction concerning a two-bedroom apartment in the Nova Taipa Gardens was concluded with a price tag of HKD6.8 million, which was about 15% short of its pre-Covid price level.
The executive realtor explained that the drop was mainly caused by a loss of purchasing power and confidence due to the lay-off of a significant number of gambling industry workers.
Despite this fact, he expected the second half of the year to have an “improved atmosphere” as many sellers are willing to lower their selling prices, even if their properties are in good condition and relatively new.
He also remarked that many local families had been considering purchasing apartments. They are in the lease market currently and waiting for their correct moment to close the deals.
With that said, his forecast was that the average price of residential properties would likely see an increase up to 5%.
Echoing Lo’s comment on the lack of purchasing confidence was Oliver Tong, general manager at JLL Macau, who called on the government to ease real property price control measures in the hopes of stabilizing the market, according to a report by local Chinese newspaper Macao Daily News.
Tong said that cash flow has lately suffered among both businesses and individual residents, making the situation worse than that of two years ago. He suggested that the government lift the price cap for first-time subsidies for youth buyers so as to allow the market to develop in a healthy manner.
