Sales Of New Homes Plummeting Hong Kong Ahead Of The Chinese New Year

Sales of new homes plunged to as low as Hong Kong's lowest in at least a quarter of acentury last month, according to Centaline Property Agency Ltd. predicted, adding toevidence that the housing prices of Hong Kong continue to slump.

Centaline estimate new home sales and January will reach 3000 secondary units, the lowest monthly figure since record keeping began in January 1991. The previous monthly low 3786 units in November 2008 according to broadcast 31 January

"The decline in the stock market, a weakening economy, weakening the economy of China and rising interest rates all provide the impact," deminian stated Joanne Lee,senior manager of research and advisory at Colliers Hong Kong team International Group Inc.

Hong Kong's property market has been showing signs of weakening since reaching its peak in September 2015, amid rising supplies from home and slowing growth in China. Home prices down 9.5 per cent in September, according to a Leading index of Centaline Property Centa-City and could fall 20 percent again in 2016, according to some estimates.

The drop in demand mainly happened in January with the traditional buyers put offmaking purchases ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday which starts on February 8.With the condition, many developers have delayed the launch of a new project until then.

In order to encourage buyers, developers have been offering discounts and rebatespostage labels as well as the second mortgage allows the borrower to finance up to90 percent of the home's value.

"If the developer wants to sell, especially for projects in new areas, they should offer incentives to potential buyers," said Thomas Lam, senior director of assessment andconsultation at Knight Frank LLP. "If they want to start a new project they should offer incentives over 12 months ago."