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HK property on the fast track to recovery

Posted on 29 Sep 2009 | Comments Off

Home prices 26% up this year, erasing Q4 ’08 post-Lehman loss

Hedge fund manager Pan Lin Feng and two friends sensed opportunity when Hong Kong property prices plunged 20 per cent last year after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc collapsed.

In November, they bought a 1,500 square foot apartment, more than double the size of a typical Hong Kong flat, in the affluent Mid-Levels district for HK$9.8 million (S$1.8 million) from an owner shoring up stock and property losses. In July, the trio was offered HK$15 million.

‘It was a good deal,’ Mr Pan, 33, said. ‘It was real luck and everyone has benefited since.’

Hong Kong home prices are up 26 per cent this year, erasing losses posted between the Sept 15, 2008 demise of Lehman Brothers and Dec 31, 2008, according to the weekly Centa-City Leading Index. Mainland Chinese buyers and record mortgage rates lower than London and New York enabled Hong Kong to recover while the other financial centres struggle.

Hong Kong is the world’s fifth-most expensive residential real estate market, after Monte Carlo, Moscow, London and Tokyo, according to Global Property Guide. Continue reading →

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Posted in Overseas Property

Tagged Hong Kong Property, Hong Kong Property Market

London luxury home prices rise 4%

Posted on 29 Sep 2009 | Comments Off

Broker attributes surge to shortage of prime properties

Luxury-home prices in central London rose 4 per cent in the third quarter from the previous three months as buyers competed for fewer properties, Savills plc said.

Recovering: Home prices in England and Wales rose 4.9% from March through July, lifting the average value to £196,338 (S$442,000). Ultra-prime properties cost an average of £15 million

Houses and apartments worth more than £1 million (S$2.3 million) in the most expensive areas fell 4.9 per cent on an annual basis, the property broker said in a statement on Friday.

The biggest quarterly increases were in the districts of Chelsea, Kensington and Belgravia in west London. The annual decline narrowed from 11.5 per cent at the end of the second quarter.

‘There isn’t enough property on the market in prime areas and priced attractively to satisfy demand,’ said Camilla Dell, managing partner of Black Brick Property Solutions LLC, which finds and buys homes for wealthy customers. Her company, which has advised on £45 million of property deals this year, participated in closed-bid auctions for two multimillion-pound homes in London last week, she said.

The number of homes for sale is about 25 per cent less than the average for the past five years, London-based Savills estimates. Demand for luxury properties increased after values fell by about 18 per cent from the market’s peak in September 2007, the broker said. The pound’s weakness also made purchases cheaper for overseas buyers. Sterling slid about 20 per cent against the euro and the dollar since the peak. Continue reading →