Hong Kong residents’ desire to purchase properties has decreased dramatically in the light of skyrocketing home prices, according to an annual survey by the University of Hong Kong.
The survey noted that approximately 1.63 million people in Hong Kong intend to purchase property, down 337,000 from last year’s 1.97 million.
Buying confidence has likewise decreased, as 64 percent of the respondents said they have no plans of acquiring a property in the next decade if prices remain high.
Price expectations rose over 50 percent to an average of HK$3 million per unit, compared with HK$1.9 million to HK$2 million per unit last year.
“Compared with last year’s findings, more people expected that property prices would drop in the future,” said Lawrence Lam, Director of Sales and Secured Lending at Citibank, which commissioned the survey.
Around 44 percent of the respondents expect home prices in the city to rise in two years, while 35 percent predict prices will fall.
Joseph Tsang, Managing Director of Jones Lang LaSalle, said that even though the sample of 1,070 respondents is relatively small, it still provides a general overview of the property market.
Nicole Wong, Regional Head of Property Research at CLSA, believes that home prices in Hong Kong have reached their peak. She noted that prices will likely fall by five percent in 2012, with a steeper decline in the mass market than in the luxury segment.
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