Citi: 40% of respondents estimate the price of the property in the next year

The property market is picking up. Citibank’s first-quarter home ownership survey shows that 42% of respondents believe that property prices will rise in the next 12 months, up 24% quarter-to-quarter, to a new high in the past three quarters, turning optimistic about property prices. The bank predicts that property prices will rise by 10% before the end of the year.

The survey commissioned Citibank to commission the Social Science Research Centre of the University of Hong Kong. In March this year, a random sample telephone interviewed more than 500 citizens. 42% of the respondents believed that property prices would rise in the next 12 months, compared with the fourth in 2018. In the quarter, 18% rebounded by 24%, which was the first time since the second quarter of 2018. The proportion was nearly three quarters high. It is expected that property prices will grow steadily by 35%, up 10% quarter-to-quarter.

Market regains optimism

As for the bleak proportion, it is relatively down to 23%, down by 34 percentage points quarterly, and the same as the three quarters since the second quarter of 2018.

Citi believes that the property market has been dominated by weak factors since the second half of 2018, including Sino-US trade war, interest rate hike pressure, and RMB depreciation. As the market gradually digests relevant news, the public has reversed the trend of property prices. It began to rebound after the Spring Festival this year.

It is expected that the property price will rise by 10% from the second quarter to the end of the year.

The market is regaining optimism about the property market trend, and the proportion of interested home buyers is on the rise. The interest in young and single-family home buyers is relatively strong. According to the survey, 26% of respondents in the first quarter of 2019 indicated that they are now interested in buying flats, up 8 percentage points quarter-to-quarter, and the proportion has reached a record high. The proportion of respondents aged 21 to 29 who were interested in getting on the bus increased by 37 percentage points to 37%.

Li Guizhuang, head of retail banking at Citibank, said that the bank had predicted that residential property prices would start to rebound after the first spring of this year, that is, after the first quarter, (1) low-interest environment, (2) strong demand for rigidity, and insufficient supply. And (3) the policy risk is not supported by three factors, it is estimated that the property price in the second quarter to the end of the year can be increased by about 10%.

Under the circumstance that property prices are expected to rise, the public has a corresponding opportunity to reduce their own homeownership. It is recommended that people who are interested in buying a home should consider choosing a suitable mortgage plan, do a good job in wealth management services and wealth management, and hope to accelerate the dream of home ownership.

For the recent one-month Hong Kong dollar interest rate hike to more than 2%, the pressure on small and medium-sized banks has increased. Citigroup will review the planned interest rate offered by the bank to ensure that it meets market needs and business objectives.