Estate agents signal property price drop

SOuth China Morning Post has reported that according to real estate agents, a 10 percent fall in Macau’s property prices is expected to extend to next year.
Home prices have plunged 50 percent since 2011, but due to a slump in gaming revenue, the mainland’s anti-graft campaign, and competition from real estate markets in Zhuhai, property agents are forecasting a 10 percent correction this year, as well as a further five percent drop in 2015.
Centaline Macau senior manager Roy Ho Sio-hang said that property prices further declined by 10 percent after plunging earlier this year.
The number of residential transactions plunged by 30 percent to 12,000 last year from 16,910 in 2012, according to the Macau Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). Mr Ho expects the number of transactions to drop a further 40 percent this year.
The chief executive at Midland Macau, Ronald Cheung, told South China Morning Post that property prices started to fall last September after Macau’s gaming revenue decline. Mr Cheung added that Hengqin’s rapid development would attract first-time homebuyers: “Home-seekers are eyeing buying opportunities in Hengqin where prices are just half of those in Macau.”
Cheung said that the number of home-seekers considering the purchase of new flats on the Zhuhai island have increased in recent weeks. “It is particularly attractive to those who do not own a home in Macau,” he stated.
Property prices in Hengqin are set at RMB40,000 per square meter, while those in Macau were MOP100,024 per square meter, he recalled.