At the beginning of this year of Dragon, everything is evolving. In general, the property market trend is always to draw the public attention during the new year holiday. In the past few years, the Chinese New Year holiday has become a peak season for the sale of new property projects. This period is a good start for property developers to make an appropriate arrangement for the year-round property sales. However, the business outlook is deteriorating in this lunar new year holiday, and developers are all avoiding to sell the new property projects in this period. Because they worried that their projects will become 
the worst-selling project in the beginning of Dragon year.
If the property market does not have new developments to act as a booster, the second-hand property market will become increasingly inactive. Under this circumstance, the property prices will decrease significantly. Therefore, it is unwise to imagine that the property market will have short-term rebound after the public holiday of Dragon year.
Last month, the property markets have experienced widespread sliding in different districts. The areas where property prices have fallen significantly are not limited to the third-tier housing estates in the New Territories West. During this period, high-quality properties have been sold at reduced prices in various districts. These transactions had numerous emigrants' property listings, but also including premises were owned by old landlords for 20 to 30 years. The only reason for them to sell their self-use properties was lack of confidence to the property market.
If landlords sell their self-use properties at low prices, it implies that the public confidence to the property market has hit rock bottom. This phenomenon indicates that the decline market has entered the second stage. During this phase, property prices will drop further in a quicker pace, but the transaction volumes are still scarce, and it is expected that this stage may last until the end of this year.
At the end of February, the government will announce a new fiscal budget, and the public keeps on asking for a full-fledged withdrawal of spicy measures against the property market. However, due to the current situation, the immediate withdrawal of these measures will not be beneficial for the market. The reason is that the public confidence has passed the pivotal point where it will not be able to rebound easily. The immediate removal of the two years lock-up period for new landlord will only encourage more property owners to sell properties at lower prices. Finally, the property price will fall to the lowest level.
According to the current market situation and with reference to the six years correction during the financial crisis from 1997 to 2003, this market decline may last two years more. It is difficult to predict how much it will drop in this adjustment. However, it is certain that the ultimate outcome is not welcomed by all landlords.
