〈The Standard, Oct 12, 2024〉Prospective home buyers expect their mortgages to eventually be less burdensome, even with the city trimming its interest rates at a moderate pace and in the face of the one-month Hong Kong interbank offered rate's recently going back up to above 4 percent.
In general, Hong Kong banks offer two main types of mortgages: the "H" and "P" plans.
The "H" plan is based on the Hibor and usually calculated using a floated one-month Hibor that has designated basis points tagged on that reflect the risk of lending to a non-institutional borrower, such as, say, 1.3 percentage points.
〈The Standard, Oct 11,2024〉A total of 463 transactions for super-prime residential properties across 11 international markets took place in the three months since June 30, marginally down by 2.7 percent year on year, with Dubai remaining the most active super luxury house market, followed by New York and Hong Kong.
The data comes from the latest Global Super-Prime Intelligence report compiled by Knight Frank, which provides a snapshot of residential sales valued at US$10 million (HK$77.94 million) or above that took place during the second quarter.
Sales volumes at the top end of the residential market have settled at almost two thirds above pre-pandemic levels.
〈Hong Kong Business, Oct 10, 2024〉Construction firms and contractors have turned to overseas markets to stay afloat amidst aproperty slump in Hong Kong, where home prices have nosedived to an eight-year low.
The city’s builders are trying to land deals in hot construction markets like Saudi Arabia, whilst some are turning to nearby markets such as Macau and Singapore, where many industry players are already active, Christopher Tung, a partner at K&L Gates Hong Kong, told Hong Kong Business.
Housing prices in Hong Kong continued their free fall in July, dropping by 1.9% month on month and 4.7% year to date, according to Knight Frank. Residential deals have declined for four consecutive months to 3,652 in August after peaking at about 8,500 transactions in April.
〈Asian Post, Oct 9, 2024〉In Hong Kong, 59% of investors believe in sustainable investing, with 28% currently invested in sustainable products, compared to the APAC averages of 58% and 31%, respectively, according to Fidelity International.
Meanwhile, 46% of Hong Kong investors are not currently allocating to sustainable investments but are interested in doing so.
Hong Kong investors are also found to prefer general ESG integration in their investment strategies (62%) over incorporating sustainable thematic investments in their portfolios which are prominent in Singapore and Mainland China.
〈RTHK News, Oct 8, 2024 The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors is calling on the government to suspend the Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme, saying doing so would allow resources to be allocated to those most in need.
Under the scheme, public housing tenants and other eligible people can buy flats at prices lower than other subsidised units.
But on an RTHK radio programme on Thursday, institute chairman Francis Lam said these Green Form units should instead be used as public rental flats.
He added that the government will need to find temporary homes for people in subdivided units that are found to be unfit for living in.
