Hong Kong's Residential Property Market Crashing....

As I expected for many months, here, seeing the prospects for sharply higher interest rates by the US Federal Reserve Bank leading to higher interest rates here, Hong Kong's residential property market has seen a dramatic decrease in sales that I expect will lead to much lower prices in the future. The Standard reported...

The 6,308 residential units sold last month represented the sixth decline in seven months and were the lowest since August last year, when 5,716 units were sold, Land Registry figures showed.

Last month's sales were 26.3 percent less than the 8,554 units sold in October, and a 41.1 percent drop from a year ago.

Sales value amounted to HK$19.4 billion, a slump of 35.1 percent from October and 44.5 percent from November 2004, the Land Registry said.

And a little anecdotal evidence that the brokers don't expect that the property market will turn-around anytime soon...

Overall value decreased 20.5 percent to HK$28.4 billion. The subdued market has forced some real estate agencies to reduce headcount.

Property agencies usually see 150 to 200 resignations each month, and the vacancies are easily filled.

However, Ricacorp Properties managing director Ivan Ho said the company is not planning to replace any this month.

Expect prices to decrease fairly dramatically in the months ahead.