From Sizzle To Fizzle: Hong Kong's Red-hot Property Market Cools

Umer Jamshaid Published January 16, 2019 | 11:43 AM

For young Hong Kongers like Wilson Leung getting a foothold on the city's property ladder has long been a near impossible task but with the notoriously overpriced housing market facing a downturn, they now have a chance of realising their dream

Hong Kong, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Jan, 2019 ) :For young Hong Kongers like Wilson Leung getting a foothold on the city's property ladder has long been a near impossible task but with the notoriously overpriced housing market facing a downturn, they now have a chance of realising their dream.

The crammed financial hub regularly tops the list of cities with the least affordable housing in the world, with even cheap apartments out of the reach of most regular workers.

However, after a decade of near continual growth Hong Kong is about to join a global downturn that is buffeting markets including London, Vancouver, Sydney and Shanghai.

And the good news for first-time buyers like Leung, who works in sales and lives with his parents, most analysts believe the trend will continue into 2019 as the China-US trade dispute rumbles on and the Chinese economy stutters.

"Now the price range is OK for me," Leung, 30, tells AFP, a sentiment not often heard in a city where many young people save for years under their parents' roofs in cramped flats well into their thirties.

"I am not waiting for the market to drop even more, but waiting for a wider selection to show up. Once I find an ideal place, I'll spring into action."Leung, who plans to marry later this year, might do well to wait some more on the property hunt. Many analysts are predicting further dips, fuelled by the fallout of the US-China trade war, the slowing mainland economy, a weakening Yuan and the prospect of further interest rate rises.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) last month said property prices declined for two consecutive months while sales volumes have been down for four months straight, the longest losing streak since 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis.