Hong Kong March home prices fall for 6th straight month amid rising supply

[HONG KONG] Hong Kong's home prices posted their sixth consecutive month of decline in March, government data showed, with housing supply expected to hit a record high over the next few years.

Home prices fell 3.5 points from February and 21.3 points from a year earlier, according to a government index published by the Rating and Valuation Department on Friday.

Home rents also recorded their sixth consecutive decline, but fell a more modest 0.6 points from February and 6.7 points from a year earlier.

Hong Kong has one of the most expensive property markets in the world and analysts have been forecasting a 10 to 15 per cent decline in home prices this year amid government cooling measures, higher US interest rates and China's economic slowdown. A slump in stock markets on the mainland has also dampened property investments in Hong Kong.

Data from Hong Kong's Transport and Housing Bureau on Friday showed the city's private housing supply was on track to hit a record high of 92,000 units in the coming three to four years.

Housing supply consists of completed but unsold units, those under construction and where construction may start at any time.

A large number of units remained unsold as of the end of March. There were 1,000 completed but unsold units from developments completed prior to 2014, another 1,000 from projects completed in 2014 and 3,000 from projects completed last year, the data showed.

In the first three months of the year, another 1,000 units had accumulated.

Of the units under construction, 86 per cent had yet to be sold, the data showed.

REUTERS