Hong Kong sees fresh record home buying by mainland Chinese, realtor says

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong saw fresh records of home-buying from mainland Chinese in the first three-quarters following efforts by the financial city to attract foreign professionals and remove purchase curbs, major realtor Centaline Property Agency said.

In the first nine months, 8,133 new and second-hand homes, representing 24% of total sales, were purchased by mainland Chinese buyers, according to a Centaline survey that tracks buyers' names with Mandarin spellings. The value of the properties sold to mainland Chinese totalled HK$90.6 billion ($11.66 billion)

Both the transaction volume and value were record highs, the realtor said on Wednesday, and increased 68% and 43%, respectively, from a year ago.

Hong Kong's government is trying to prop up the struggling residential property market by lifting all additional stamp duties for foreign and second home buyers in February.

Earlier this month, it also relaxed the down-payment ratio to 30% for all properties, and allowed purchases of luxury homes worth more than HK$50 million to be included in its investment immigration scheme.

The financial hub is still one of the world's most unaffordable property market even after prices tumbled nearly 30% from their 2021 peak.

The city launched a range of talent attraction measures in 2022, after the former British colony saw an exodus of residents including expatriates following anti-government protests in 2019 and then the pandemic. Most of the population gap has since been filled by mainland Chinese.

Centaline said most of the mainland Chinese purchases occurred in the secondary market, and the average spending was HK$11 million, the price for small-to-medium sized homes.

Despite the rise in foreign buyers and removal of property curbs, Hong Kong's private home prices dropped for the fifth consecutive month in September, official data showed on Tuesday.

Realtors expected the market to bottom out soon after an interest rate cut and the government's latest easing policies.   

Meanwhile, the mainland China property market continued to struggle with a multi-year slump, with new home prices falling at the fastest pace since May 2015 in September.

($1 = 7.7705 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)