Ricacorp: August Hong Kong second-hand private residential resale profit ratio 69.4%, consolidating at a high level.

Ricacorp Properties' Head of Research, Chen Haichao, said that the profit ratio for second-hand private residential resales bottomed out near the 60% mark in August last year before rising erratically to the 70% level in June this year, after which it consolidated at a high level. Based on consolidated Land Registry data, among the 1,916 second-hand private residential sale registrations in August 2026 with known previous purchase prices, a total of 1,329 cases recorded a book profit, accounting for 69.4%, down another 0.2 percentage points month-on-month, marking a second consecutive monthly decline, yet still the 3rd highest in the past 31 months. This reflects a slight cooling in the second-hand market's momentum in recent months, with the profit ratio also softening relatively. By property region, Hong Kong Island performed best in August, with 71.8% recording the highest profit success ratio among all districts, though down 1.6 percentage points month-on-month; Kowloon followed at 71.5%, up 2.6 percentage points month-on-month; the New Territories underperformed the overall market, recording only 67.0%, down 1.3 percentage points month-on-month. Analyzing by resale price, the HK$8.01 million to HK$10 million bracket had the highest profit ratio at 78.2%, up 3.1 percentage points month-on-month, involving 176 cases; additionally, the HK$10.01 million to HK$12 million bracket also achieved a profit ratio of 76.7% during the month, up 4.8 percentage points month-on-month, also outperforming the overall market. Separately, data shows that the average profit margin per second-hand private residential resale case also softened in August this year, recording 25.4%, down 1.7 percentage points for the month, while recent months have maintained a narrow range above 25%, marking the 4th highest level of the year. Cases with a book profit of 1 time or more accounted for 25.7% of overall second-hand private residential transactions, up 1.8 percentage points month-on-month, recording 493 cases; as for cases recording a book loss, there were 570 cases, with the share down 0.1 percentage points month-on-month to 29.7%, the second lowest in the past 31 months; meanwhile, there were 17 break-even cases last month, with the share up 0.3 percentage points to 0.9%. Furthermore, reviewing the 10 estates with the most profit-making registrations last month, 4 of them recorded 100% profitability, including Taikoo Shing (11 cases), The Wings (10 cases), Laguna Verde (9 cases), and Metro Town (9 cases). Other estates with relatively high profit success ratios included Cullinan West at 85% and Whampoa Garden at 83%. Among these 10 estates, the average profit or loss per case ranged from the worst loss of 0.02% to the best gain of 1.05 times. Among them, Taikoo Shing recorded an average profit of 105.3% per resale case, making it the best-performing estate; Laguna Verde and Metro Town also averaged profits of 101.1% and 61.1% respectively. However, Cullinan West and LOHAS Park performed relatively weaker, with average losses of 0.02% and average gains of 1.3% per resale case respectively. Looking ahead, Chen Haichao noted that the second-hand market has been in a tug-of-war in recent months, affected by the traditional summer slack season and the launch of multiple new projects at market-competitive prices, leaving second-hand owners in a more passive position on asking prices, with their advantage less pronounced than mid-year; moreover, the overall market has also been hampered by rising interest rates. Therefore, it is expected that the profit ratio for second-hand private residential resales and the average profit margin per case will continue to fluctuate within a narrow range in September, with the former expected to move sideways between 69.2% and 69.6%, while the latter is expected to soften slightly further to the 25% level, though after a round of consolidation, the outlook may still stabilize optimistically.