Hong Kong’s March property sales rise to 4-month high, in a sign of improving sentiment

Sales of new and lived-in homes, shops, office units, car parking spaces and industrial properties jumped 55 per cent in March from a month earlier to 6,661 lots, while the transaction value soared 61 per cent to around HK$45.65 billion (US$5.9 billion), according to Land Registry data released on Wednesday.

The official data was in line with estimates made a day earlier by Midland Realty and Ricacorp Properties, two of the city’s largest property agencies.

“With favourable property market measures [announced] in the budget at the end of February and the strong performance of Hong Kong stocks in recent months, new property sales have been outstanding,” said Midland chief analyst Buggle Lau Ka-fai.

The bullish momentum is likely to be sustainable, with the forecast for deals in April to reach 7,040 lots, Ricacorp said. That would be the highest monthly transactions since the 7,695 lots in November, the agency said.

The revival in the city’s real estate industry vindicates the stamp duty cuts announced in February by Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, who slashed the levy on homes worth up to HK$4 million to HK$100 from HK$60,000. The previous threshold was HK$3 million. The change could spur sales of HK$4 million flats to account for 30 per cent of private home sales, up from 25 per cent in 2024, CBRE said.

In the first quarter of the year, 901 homes priced at HK$4 million or below were sold, which was about 138 per cent higher than the fourth quarter, according to Midland. In March alone, 442 of these homes in this price range were bought.