Hong Kong’s diverging housing rents and home prices are turning more renters into buyers, especially new arrivals under the city’s various talent schemes, offering a potential salve to the real estate slump.
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At the same time, attractive rental returns, lower interest rates and the end of duties aimed at non-residents are drawing more buyers from mainland China into the Hong Kong market, property agents said.
Monica Li, a 36-year-old full-time mother from Beijing, has been busy searching for a two-bedroom flat in either Kai Tak or Wong Chuk Hang in the price range of HK$20 million (US$2.6 million). For families like hers – and all mainland investors – buying Hong Kong property is more palatable after stamp duties were waived in February, including a Buyer’s Stamp Duty that targeted non-permanent residents, Li added.
“Properties are cheap now as prices have gone down a lot from the peak,” Li said, “Interest rates are also going down, but rents are performing well. It’s a good time to invest in appropriate projects.”
Li, who originally came to Hong Kong for work, as did her husband, is not betting on a big profit from rising home prices. Rather, she has decided her children will study in Hong Kong. Many mainland families are shopping for property for the same reason, she said.
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“The number of mainland buyers purchasing Hong Kong properties has significantly increased since March, and we saw recent first-hand projects like Sun Hung Kai Properties’ Cullinan Sky in Kai Tak and CK Asset’s Blue Coast in Wong Chuk Hang mainly targeting these buyers,” said Norry Lee, senior director of the project strategy and consultancy department at JLL Hong Kong.