Category Archives: Overseas Property

HK luxury home sales soar on mainland deals

Posted on 7 Oct 2009 | Comments Off on HK luxury home sales soar on mainland deals

Prices jump 28% in first nine months as low mortgage costs fuel buying: Colliers

Hong Kong’s luxury home sales almost tripled in September from a month earlier, as mainland Chinese residents flocked to buy flats in the city.

The registered sales of residential units worth more than HK$10 million (S$1.8 million) rose to 1,351 from 500 in August, according to Land Registry figures released on Monday.

A one-bedroom apartment in Hong Kong’s Kowloon district was bought for HK$30,025 per square foot last month, a record for a property of that type in the city, Centaline Property Agency Ltd said. The home was sold for HK$24.5 million.

Luxury home prices in Hong Kong climbed as much as 28 per cent in the first nine months of the year, as low mortgage costs fuelled buying, according to Colliers International Ltd.

Prices may rise by between 5 and 10 per cent in the next six to 12 months, the global real-estate broker said last month. Continue reading →

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South Korea may clamp down on housing bubble

Posted on 6 Oct 2009 | Comments Off on South Korea may clamp down on housing bubble

Its central bank may break ranks with G-20 partners and raise interest rates

Would-be home owner Hwang Min-soon is the sort of bullish property buyer who may prompt the central bank to break ranks with the G-20 and raise interest rates.

She is considering the purchase of a 104 square metre apartment in Seoul, where property prices have defied the global financial crisis to rise 20 per cent since the start of the year. When asked the sort of return she expected on her investment, Ms Hwang replied: ‘In the next two to three years, I’d say 70 to 80 million won (S$84,000 to S$96,000).’ That would be in the order of 30 per cent.

Property prices in South Korea are rising rapidly and, since urban South Koreans show no sign of losing their voracious appetite for property, so, more worryingly, are mortgages.

The central bank slashed its interest rates to a record low of 2 per cent to support the economy during the crisis. But it is now highlighting the property binge as reason enough to start raising them, even if that means breaking ranks with its G-20 partners, who have pledged to keep stimulus measures in place. Financial regulators are also ready to impose more controls on home loans. Continue reading →

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