Maoyan: Significant cooling effect, Hong Kong second-hand residential registrations increase more than 20%

Since the complete withdrawal of the cooling measures at the end of February last year, the number of second-hand residential property registrations in Hong Kong in the past year has increased compared to the previous year. According to data from the Land Registry compiled by Midland Realty Research Center, from March 2024 to February of this year (up to February 24th), there were a total of 40,946 registrations of second-hand residential properties (including private and public housing), estimated to be around 41,500 in total, averaging around 3,450 registrations per month. This represents a significant increase of over 20% compared to the average of around 2,820 registrations per month in the year before the cooling measures were withdrawn. Alan Liu, Chief Analyst at Midland Realty, pointed out that the significant increase in the number of second-hand residential property registrations in the past year was not only due to the withdrawal of the cooling measures, but also to the central government's economic stimulus measures, the positive housing policies announced in the policy address, and the start of an interest rate reduction cycle, all of which have contributed to an improvement in the property market. In contrast, the trading volume was very low in the year before the cooling measures were withdrawn, so there has been a clear rebound in the past year. However, when compared to the average of around 4,090 registrations per month during the more than ten-year period of the cooling measures (from November 2010 to February 2024), the number of registrations in the year after the withdrawal is still more than 10% lower. Furthermore, when compared to the period before the cooling measures were introduced, the difference is even more significant. From January 1997 to October 2010, the average monthly number of second-hand residential property registrations was around 6,550, which is about 47% higher than the number recorded in the year after the cooling measures were withdrawn. On the other hand, in the nearly one year since the withdrawal of the cooling measures, the total amount of second-hand residential property registrations was 263.3 billion Hong Kong dollars, estimated to reach around 266 billion Hong Kong dollars, averaging about 22 billion Hong Kong dollars per month. Compared to the average of around 20.8 billion Hong Kong dollars per month in the year before the cooling measures were withdrawn, the increase is only about 7%, significantly lower than the more than 20% increase in the number of registrations during the same period, mainly due to the fluctuation in property prices in the past year.