Residents more pessimistic about buying houses

Yesterday, the Macau University of Science and Technology published the Macau consumer confidence index for the third quarter this year, which shows a drop in local consumer confidence for the second consecutive quarter.
The consumer confidence index in Q3 is 85.06 – 0.3 percent, or 1.15 points lower than the Q2 figure – remaining under the benchmark of 100 points.
Among the six sub-indexes used to calculate the index, three of them have moved up while the other three have gone down.
Those three sub-indexes that scored higher than last quarter include local economy, which rose 0.55 points to 108.82. The sub-
index of commodity quality increased 0.79 points to 59.59, and investment is up 1.93 points to 85.76.
The rise in the investment sub-index indicates that consumers are more willing to invest into the stock market despite its current fluctuations.
Among the three sub-indexes that have dropped in Q3, the employment sub-index records the largest decline, down 2.19 points to 124.2. Another two falling sub-indexes, house purchasing and living quality, have seen a drop of 1.04 and 1.59 points to 38.34 and 93.64, respectively.
The house purchasing sub-index continues to be the lowest among all sub-indexes, falling even further this quarter. This indicates that residents are becoming much more pessimistic about buying houses in Macau.
The research team suggested that, in order to reignite local consumers’ confidence, it is crucial for the Macau government to eliminate the uncertain factors in the market, to strengthen the result of attempts to tame the inflation in order to reduce the living pressure on residents, as well as facilitating a balance in the housing market. JPL