Travel restrictions lift helps revive property market

The relaxation of travel restrictions has led to a resurgence of transactions involving both first-hand and used residential units in Macau, an executive of a regional realtor said yesterday.

John Ng, district director for Residential Department of Centaline Property, recapped residential market details during the first quarter. He said that, with travel restrictions lifted, transactions of both first-hand and used units have accelerated, with used units reviving even earlier.

During the first two months, prices for used units climbed up about 5% on average, according to his estimate. He further anticipates this year’s rise in prices to compensate for the drop last year, should the rise continue.

In addition, he expects the number of transactions to reach about 900 for the entire first quarter, with a 17% rise year-over-year. Government data showed that in January and February city saw 205 and 319 transactions.

Ng added that market atmosphere is quite heated, which could be seen in several new estates that opened in March having attracted numerous buyers, who opted mostly for smaller units, such as studio flat and one-room units. The three and four-room units at Nova Grand has only been half-sold, the realtor added.

In contrast, more buyers of large units were seen in the used unit market, with “a significant rise” in the number of such buyers. Ng also pointed out that the heat in the used unit market has boosted up the new unit market as well, encouraging developers to offer more units for sale.

Moreover, more corporate customers were looking for residential units. They were either buying the units for investments or to use as team dormitories. The realtor revealed that in a prime residential estate in the Mong-ha district, 14 units held by a single company have recently seen rising requests from several companies. However, the realtor did not announce that deals were made.

The realtor also defended developers’ move to offer promotional prices, which was not out of pessimism over the future, but to release stocks to the market to generate demands first.

On commercial and industrial units, Roy Ho, principal director of the realtor’s Macau and Zhuhai offices, pointed out that in the first quarter, the city saw 53% fewer transactions in the industrial unit market year-over-year.

As for shops, the first quarter saw large-scale leases in tourism and casino districts, with 14 cases involving units of over HKD200,000 monthly rental and two cases involving HKD1 million. Ho recalled that a whole building was leased to a boutique for HKD1.5 million rental per month.

Chen Ruifan, deputy general manager of the realtor’s office in Hengqin, revealed that more units would be released in the rest of this year, hinting at further prosperity ahead.