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Cheryl Arcibal

Hong Kong’s lived-in home prices posted a small gain for the second straight month in May, according to official data, fortifying hopes of a sustained recovery in the city’s property market.
An official index measuring secondary home prices inched up by 0.03 per cent in May from a month earlier, the Rating and Valuation Department said on Thursday. In April, the gauge rose 0.35 per cent from March.
In the first five months of the year, second-hand home prices declined by 0.9 per cent. They are down 28 per cent from a peak in September 2021.
“While residential prices are bottoming out, significant rises are not expected in 2025,” said Eddie Kwok, executive director for valuation and advisory services at CBRE Hong Kong.
“Given the improvement in market sentiment coupled with low financing costs, we maintain our forecast of 0 per cent to 5 per cent growth in residential prices for 2025. This may also call an end to the residential market correction since 2021.”
Prices retreated slightly in Class E segment – homes with saleable area of at least 160 square metres (1,722 sq ft) – while four other housing categories were either unchanged or posted small gains, the data showed.
April’s 0.35 per cent gain came amid a surge in deals after Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po reduced the stamp duty on homes priced up to HK$4 million (US$510,000) to HK$100 from HK$60,000 in his budget in February. Before the change, the HK$100 duty only applied to homes priced up to HK$3 million.
Homes worth up to HK$4 million accounted for a quarter of residential sales in 2024, and the cut in the stamp duty was likely to increase the segment’s share to 30 per cent, CBRE said.
The property market has also received a boost from a drop in the Hong Kong interbank offered rate (Hibor), which is linked to mortgage loans. On Thursday, the one-month Hibor remained below 1 per cent, according to the Hong Kong Association of Banks.
“Positive carry for residential properties has resurfaced, as the one-month Hibor has dropped since May,” Kwok said. Positive carry means that growth in property values exceeds financing costs.
“Considering the current market condition, this trend is likely to remain unchanged in the next few months,” he added. “If this holds, buy-to-lease investors and end users will enter the residential property market progressively.”
More positive factors such as the tariff war truce between the US and China, strong sales of new units and a more active stock market were likely to lift home prices by as much as 0.8 per cent in June, according to Derek Chan, head of research at Ricacorp Properties.
“In the second quarter, home prices are estimated to rise by 1.29 per cent, narrowing the decline in the first half of the year to about 0.1 per cent,” he said.
Meanwhile, rents in the city climbed 0.67 per cent in May from a month earlier. It was the sixth consecutive month of increasing rents in the city, bringing the index to its highest since September.
A further increase of 1 per cent in rents is expected in June amid the summer vacation season, which means a more active rental market, Chan said.
“Second-quarter rents are likely to rise by 2.12 per cent, and the first half is expected to increase by 2.44 per cent,” he said.
This would put rents in the city just 1.47 per cent below the historical high in August 2019 and set a new peak in the third quarter, Chan said.


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Prices could rise up to 5 per cent this year given improving market sentiment and low financing costs, CBRE says


Prices could rise up to 5 per cent this year given improving market sentiment and low financing costs, CBRE says.


Hong Kong home prices post tiny gain in May, bolstering case for end of long slump

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Prices could rise up to 5 per cent this year given improving market sentiment and low financing costs, CBRE says

Prices could rise up to 5 per cent this year given improving market sentiment and low financing costs, CBRE says