By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-23 13:06:46 | Updated at 2025-01-23 17:34:51
4 hours ago
Mortgage registrations in Hong Kong dropped to the lowest level on record last year, as the city’s property market suffered from high interest rates and a decline in real estate prices, according to Centaline Property.
Owners registered a total of 47,917 mortgage contracts for assets including private flats, home-ownership scheme flats, parking spaces, shops, industrial facilities and offices, the least since records began in 2000, according to Yeung Ming-yee, a senior associate director at Centaline. The data excluded uncompleted flats.
Registrations for lived-in homes fell 17.6 per cent to 16,536 from a year earlier, the lowest since 2010 when the firm started tracking them. The number has declined for three consecutive years, amounting to a cumulative 60 per cent retreat from 2021, she said.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority raised its base rate on 11 occasions between March 2022 and July 2023, pushing borrowing costs to the highest level in 23 years. The US Federal Reserve trimmed its key rate three times since kicking off its easing cycle in September, while the HKMA followed in lockstep by policy.
Despite the annual setback, market sentiment improved towards the end of the year when registrations surged 35 per cent sequentially in December to 3,928, ending a four-month slump. Mortgages on residential properties made up 79 per cent of them with equal contribution from the primary and secondary market.
