Greater Bay Area property market to see brighter days ahead as synergies build in the 11-city bloc
- More Hong Kong residents are visiting mainland China cities for viewing properties after the ‘Northbound Travel for Hong Kong Vehicles’ scheme was unveiled last year
- Cross-border payment measures, due to be launched on February 26, will further facilitate real estate investments on the mainland
Property markets in China’s Greater Bay Area will see an uptick in 2024, as businesses and communities find synergies within the 11-city economic powerhouse which has a GDP of US$2 trillion and a population of 86 million, experts say.
While new home sales performance have remained steady for nine mainland cities across the bay area during the past two years, prices dropped marginally as the region, whose GDP exceeds South Korea’s, felt the aftershocks of the Covid-19 pandemic. But these trends are about to reverse, experts say.
Enhanced cross-border payment measures, due to be launched on February 26, will enable Macau and Hong Kong buyers to purchase property in the bay area without the existing daily remittance cap of 80,000 yuan (US$11,120) in a seamless transaction process for real estate investments. Last September, Guangzhou relaxed home purchase restrictions for non-local residents and Dongguan allowed Hong Kong and Macau citizens to purchase homes irrespective of their length of residency. These moves are expected to facilitate economic growth and further integration within the bay area.
“We have observed an increasing number of Hong Kong residents go northbound for viewing properties since the ‘Northbound Travel for Hong Kong Vehicles’ scheme was rolled out [mid last year],” said Ted Lam, Midland Realty’s managing director for the Greater Bay Area.
“The trend of ‘shopping northbound’ is also a good signal,” he said, adding that some of the latest measures announced by Beijing are expected to be one of the biggest boosts this year.
Transacted volume for first-hand homes across nine mainland cities stood at around 40.7 million square metres in both 2022 and 2023, while prices slid 1.2 per cent in 2023 versus 2022, according to data compiled by JLL.
