The glass facade of a real estate agency in the Zhujiang New Town district of Guangzhou
Guangzhou may be the first of the mainland’s four tier-one cities to lift restrictions on homebuyers from Hong Kong and Macau, but industry experts doubt the move will boost property sales in the region.
Industry experts are skeptical that Guangdong will clear its target of 160 million square meters of empty housing stock by 2018.
The Times earlier reported that Guangdong’s provincial government may lift home-purchase restrictions for buyers from Hong Kong and Macau, and will be entitled to the same benefits as locals in “eligible cities.”
However, the new measure is not expected to draw buyers from Hong Kong, where prices have fallen nearly 11 percent after peaking last September.
“The relaxation, if it materializes, will create potential demand from Hong Kong but not in a big way,” Joseph Tsang, managing director at JLL Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post.
Meanwhile Thomas Lam, head of Valuation and Consultancy at Knight Frank, said Hong Kong was still a favorable investment among local investors, and added that investors are mainly concerned with the mainland’s slowing economy.
According to mainland data provider Real Estate Information, prices for new flats in Guangzhou – which dominated total residential transactions – rose just over 36 percent since 2010, compared to Hong Kong’s 88 percent rise over the same period.
Prices for new homes in Guangzhou had a month-
on-month increase of 0.64 percent in February.
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