Macau housing market said to face competition from Hengqin

Sunset over neighboring Hengqin

Macau’s residential property sales are being overshadowed by the competition created in the nearby Hengqin Island, under the administration of Zhuhai, according to the Centaline Property (Macau) real estate company.
Yesterday, the company held a press conference where it released statistics on the Macau and Hengqin property markets in the third quarter.
According to a representative of Centaline, surnamed Lo, the number of residential property transactions in the third quarter in Macau are relatively low as Macau did not launch new real estate projects, whereas several housing projects opened for sale in Hengqin.
The new Hengqin Port and Hengqin train station also opened to the public.
“The market’s attention was drawn to Hengqin, thus local residential property sales were rather quiet,” said Lo.
In July and August, Macau recorded 654 and 532 residential property sales respectively. A similar figure is expected for September, pushing the total estimated number of sales in the third quarter to 1,600, according to Lo. During the same period, housing prices remained stable in Macau.
According to statistics registered by Centaline, in August, Hengqin experienced an all-time record high in the number of online housing sales, with Macau residents forming the largest group of buyers.
In the third quarter of 2020, about one-third (34%) of Hengqin’s property sales were made to Macau residents, according to Centaline’s statistics. The second largest group of buyers are from Guangdong province, who contributed to 18% of the total sales.
At the end of last month, over 400 housing units developed by Shun Tak Holdings Ltd, right next to the Hengqin Port, were sold out within several minutes of going to market, with an average price of 50,000 yuan (58,000 patacas) per square meter.
Another building right in front of the Hengqin Port is currently waiting for its official launch. The project consists of the China-Portuguese speaking trade square.
Centaline predicted that this building will become the second hot project following the Shun Tak building.
As of August, Hengqin had registered 53,441 commercial entities. The number of Macau companies reached 3,023, representing 59% among all non-mainland investments.
Centaline believes that Hengqin will enact more beneficial policies in relation to commerce and the property market. He hopes that Hengqin will become a “second Macau,” in line with the Chief Executive’s wishes for the city.
According to Centaline’s statistics, in the third quarter of 2020, the average price of private retail properties in Taipa was about HKD31,000 per square foot, down approximately HKD4,000 compared to the same period of 2019.
For private retail properties in the northern district, the average rental price went up to HKD12,700 from HKD12,300 of the third quarter of 2019.
The average rent of offices in the Novos Aterros do Porto Exterior (NAPE) area dropped the most compared to other districts. According to Centaline, the average rent of offices in NAPE decreased by nearly 15% in year-on-year terms.