Secondary home sales perk up as new launches take a breather

Secondary sales at Hong Kong’s 10 major housing estates rose to a six-week high over the weekend, with no new projects to tempt homebuyers away.

The 10 blue-chip estates recorded 11 transactions over the first two days of the three-day Dragon Boat Festival, up by 57 percent from a week ago and back to double-digit figures, according to data from Midland Realty.

Rival Centaline Property Agency also posted 10 deals at the 10 major estates during the weekend, up by 43 percent from a week earlier.

Louis Chan Wing-kit, Asia Pacific vice chairman of the residential division at Centaline Property, said there were no new projects for sale over the weekend, and this resulted in more deals in the second-hand market.

However, many prospective buyers are hoping that the US will now start cutting interest rates earlier than expected, following rate cuts in Canada and Europe, and the number of second-hand deals are likely to remain low as they adopt a wait-and-see approach, Chan said.

Sammy Po Siu-ming, Midland Realty’s chief executive for the residential division for Hong Kong and Macau, also believes that the focus will remain on the primary market as more new projects are rolled out in the near future to meet demand.

He added that the second-hand homes market will remain volatile.

In the primary market, Henderson Land Development’s (0012) The Haddon in Hung Hom collected 450 checks as of 7.30pm yesterday, making the 63 flats in the batch more than six times oversubscribed.

In Yuen Long, After The Rain developed by Star Properties, is expected to hike prices, with over 80 percent of the flats already sold.

Elsewhere, phase 1 of the Grand Jete in Tuen Mun sold seven out of 28 flats on Sunday after the developer CK Asset (1113) slashed their prices by as much as 28 percent.