Over the weekend we reported that in the aftermath of China’s crackdown on capital controls, “Chinese buyers have left the U.S. housing market.” But if potential Chinese buyers are unable to transfer funds out of the mainland, it wouldn’t be just the U.S. and Australia where the housing bubble is now rapidly bursting, it would be everywhere else too as said potential buyers hunker down and instead scramble to avoid the government’s attention and to preserve dry powder.
Sure enough, nowehere was this more clear overnight than in Hong Kong, where the once-upon-a-time raging housing bubble just got its last rites after November home sales sank to a record low as an imminent interest rate in the US this month scared away prospective buyers.
According to Land Registry data, reported by SCMP, November saw 2,826 registered residential transactions, down 14.4% from October and 41.7% less than in November last year. This was the lowest print in the history of the series.
In terms of value, residential transactions dropped 7.7% month on month to HK$20.8 billion.
“Total home sales including those in primary and the secondary market dropped to the lowest level since we have started to gauge property transactions in 1996,” said Wong Leung-sing, an associate director of research at Centaline Property Agency.
As cited by SCMP, he said prospective buyers in general held back their purchases in view of softening home prices and a potential rate hike also dented interest. Given the peg of the Hong Kong dollar to the US dollar, any increase in interest rates in Washington would impact the home market here. “Sales volume in the secondary market fell for the fourth straight month to a 20-year low,” Wong said.
That… and not to mention the whole Chinese economy grinding to a halt while severely limiting capital flows to avoid further uncontrolled devaluation of its currency.
Hong Kong home prices fell 4.5 per cent after peaking in September, according to the Centa-City Leading Index, but was still up 6 per cent from the beginning of the year. Last week, 20 out of 50 housing estates monitored by Ricacorp Properties recorded zero transactions.
