26/5/2018-9

The official building index rose by nearly 2% on a monthly basis. The most powerful year-on-year rise of nearly 40% in 25 consecutive months did not reflect the King Effect

Hong Kong property prices continued to climb, and the latest figures from the Rating and Valuation Department showed that the overall private property sales index for April was at 375.9 points (Chart 1). It rose for 25 consecutive months and hit a record high for 18 consecutive months to monthly basis. The increase of 1.84 percent is the largest increase in a year, but the index still does not reflect the impact of the king of Kai Tak on the property market. The market generally expects that the property price index will continue to rise in the future, but due to the influence of the rate hike factors, there is an opportunity to slow down the upward trend in the second half of the year. Ming Pao reporter Lin Shangmin

The Rating and Valuation Bureau announced yesterday that the private property sales price index for April this year reported 375.9 points, which rose by another 1.84 percent month-on-month. The index had risen for 25 consecutive months and reached a new record high with a cumulative increase of 38.5% since November 2016. The selling price index rose to a record high of 306.7 points. The private housing price index has been broken for 18 consecutive months, which is 23.5% higher than 2016. In terms of monthly increase, the increase of 1.84 percent in April was the one-year high after the 2.74% increase in April last year. In fact, this year’s property market is booming. If we compare the latest index with 352.7 points in December last year, the property price index for the first four months of this year has risen by about 6.6%.

Fine units rose 1.94% month-on-month

Among the various types of units, the monthly increase rate of the Class A unit below the level of Utility 431 was the highest, at 414.3 points, up by 1.94% month-on-month, which was the highest since 1.97% recorded in February this year (Figure 2). The unit price index of such units rose 13.4% year-on-year. As for the small and medium-sized units with practical 431 to 752 square meters, the April index was 358.8 points, up 1.93% month-on-month. It was a year-high new year after recording a 2.64% increase in April last year, up 14% year-on-year. On the other hand, in the major units with 1722 square feet or more, the April floor index was 328.4 points, up 0.15% month-on-month, up 9.2% year-on-year, reflecting the fact that the market was still led by small and medium-sized units in the past year.

On the rental front, Hong Kong’s private sector rent index rose again in April, with the latest report at 190.3 points, up 0.42% from March’s 189.5 points, and rising for three consecutive months, a cumulative increase of 1.65%.

Rent index rose for 3 months

Lin Haowen, a senior director and valuation consultant at Knight Frank, said that the private building index was a new high, similar to earlier estimates, and mainly concentrated in small and medium-sized units, due to the high property prices in recent years, the slow “turnover”, and the major concentration of transactions. In small and medium-sized units, it is estimated that the average dwellings will increase by 8% to 12% this year. This year, after the super-rich mansion can be recovered, it is expected to increase by 10% to 15%. However, he believes that most of the increase in property prices will occur in the first half of this year. In the second half of the year, the increase will narrow or slow down. The impact on Hong Kong’s residential property market in the next six months will be mainly due to government policies and sudden external economic or political factors. After that, the supply and The rate hike trend.