Violence incident made the second-hand property market in New Territories to freeze.
(By Choi KingMan)
Two consecutive weekends of violence incident in Yuen Long have caused a significant impact on the property market in this district. According to the latest available information, since the violent incident on 21 July, the house visiting quantity and the second-hand property transactions in the district were immediately fell sharply. The transactions over the whole district in the latest week (22-28 July) were only nine cases, sharply down 53% from 19 case in the previous week. Among them, many are transactions with price cut. As for the nearby Kingswood Villas in Tin Shui Wai, it had zero transaction for a week.
Agents in the district estimate, the dull market will continue for one more month, and it is estimated the property price in this district will be stable since the owners are not willing to cut price, also the future trend depends on the development of the situation, with the fluctuations in 3-5%.
The transactions were only 9 cases in one week. Owners are softening.
According to the statistics of transactions in Yuen Long District in the past two months, the transaction has sharply down in the recent one week, from about 15-21 cases weekly in the previous weeks to only 9 cases in the past one week, a decrease of nearly half, and it is one of the weeks have worst-performing transactions in this year. The prices of many transactions among the recorded 9 cases in the past one week have been cut, reflecting the owners are softening under the rapid decline in short-term market.
A flat in Yoho Midtown was cut by 6.5% and sold to customer from other district.
The latest transaction came from Yoho Midtown, Yuen Long. Chen YinWing from Centaline Property expresses, low floor room A of block 1 in 443 sq ft was asked for HKD8 million in this March by the original owner, then was adjusted to about HKD7.7 million at the beginning of July, and cut more HKD0.52 million of 6.5% recently to HKD7.48 million and sold, with the sq ft price at HKD16,885. The new buyer is from other district, who also knew that there was a big conflict in this district when signing this contract. The original owner bought it for HKD4.8 million in 2014.
The quantity of house visiting customers decreased up to nearly 90%.
In fact, due to the impact of violence incident, the house visiting in Yuen Long District is completely frozen. The Senior Business Director of Centaline Property, Fang KaiMing expresses when accepting the interview from that, they only recorded 10 groups of house visiting on the past Saturday, down nearly 90% from generally 80 groups in the past. Even though business activity resumed in Yuen Long yesterday, there were still only 30 to 40 groups of house visiting in the district, about 70% lower than before.
Although the quantities of house visiting and transactions decreased sharply in short term, but Fang KaiMing believes the current conflict would not have a significant impact on property prices in the district, because the recent disputes occurred not only in Yuen Long, but also in other districts. He says frankly that the social climate has an impact on the owner's psychology, and the price will not be strong, but it is believed that there will be prospective buyers take the opportunity to enter the market at the same time, so the property prices in Yuen Long will be predicted to rise in this year, while the rate of increase will slow down.
The Managing Director of Kwai Tsing and Yuen Long districts of Ricacorp, Chang KinLeung expresses, the recent negative factors in Yuen Long did affect the property transactions in the district, and many transactions were made including price cuts, with the Reach, Domus and etc all recorded transactions including price reductions. However, there always been a huge gap between buyers’ and sellers’ expectations of property prices, for example "Prospective buyers want 10% less, but owners are only willing to cut 3%", leading the recent transactions to be greatly affected, and it is estimated that the decline in transaction will continue for about one month.
The gap of expectations from buyer and seller is large, so the price is estimated to fall 5% of the most.
Looking ahead to the property market trend in Yuen Long district, there will be first housing customers continue to buy houses due to the short supply in this district, plus with the support from renting, the property prices in this district will not be easy to fall sharply. Chang KinLeung estimates, the property market trend in Yuen Long district depends on recent developments, and it is estimated the fluctuation will be 3% to 5%.
The so-called of Teeth Can’t Live without Lips, the Executive Director of Many Wells, Tse ChakMing expresses, the transaction in Tuen Mun of the recent one week was also not optimistic, with a weekly sharply drop of half, and the house visiting quantity also sharply down up to 30%. He points out that, Yuen Long and Tuen Mun are on the same West Rail Line, and many people are worried since there was demonstration in Tuen Mun in the early time. As the current situation is unpredictable and the impact of events on Hong Kong's economy and property market is not able to be predicted, so the future market may be relatively dull.
On the other side, Ng YiuCho from Centaline Property also expresses, Kingswood Villas in Tin Shui Wai has not recorded transaction since July 21 affecting by the social dispute events, and most house visiting appointments on the past Saturday were canceled, while there were only a few groups of house visiting on Sunday, making the property transaction into pause.
