Since the withdrawal of the cooling measures, the transaction volume of the property market has increased significantly. Under this condition, developers have been speeding up to launch new projects to attract potential buyers. The price of these new flats was reduced to the price of newly completed properties, resulting in a lot of public attention. The removal of all the cooling measures, all additional property taxes would be cancelled immediately, and the value of property investment had reemerged. Consequently, investors have also been attracted to reenter the property market. Recently, an investor purchased twenty-four units in a new development, and it affirmed that this investor has a strong faith in the property market.
The removal of cooling measures is beneficial for investors because their savings funds can be invested in the real estate market again. In the past few years, a large number of high-profile investors purchased a large amount of commercial and retail properties with highly leveraged loans. Until now, the valuation of these properties has been depreciating by more than 30% to 40%. Thus, these investors are currently attempting to sell those premises to reduce the loan ratio so that they could avoid falling into the calling list of bank loan repayment.
Except of the above-mentioned group of investors, there are still a group of investors who had avoided entering the market by purchasing the premises at soaring prices. Nowadays, they have taken the advantage of the removal of cooling measures to re-enter the property investment market. They will still pay attention to the retail market, however some of their spare funds are ready to be invested in residential properties, particularly the low-priced first-hand properties.
This group of investors specifically select this type of property, mainly because these current prices of first-hand properties have been reduced by 10% to 20% compared to one year ago. Furthermore, there are a large number of newly arrived China professionals who have a strong demand for leasing premises. Therefore, the rental yield of these flats is guaranteed. In fact, the return of these premises can generate 3% more, so the investment value is acceptable.
At present, the trend of foreign capital withdrawing has not changed, so the vacancy rate of Grade A commercial buildings has exceeded 10%, and the rental and sales prices keep on falling. Therefore, investors had lost interest in investing in this type of property. The market conditions of shops are even worse. There are also vacant shops in Des Voeux Road Central, and a two-dish meal boxes’ restaurant will open its branch in this area. The rents of some shops have fallen by more than 70%, and shop prices have dropped sharply following the falling rents. The situation is the same for luxurious homes. In the leasing market, a sharp decline of foreign renters caused vacancy rates to increase. Moreover, China's high rollers have turned to selling from buying due to lack of funds. Therefore, the price of luxurious houses was also falling.
In the current situation, it is difficult to earn money from wealthy buyers, so investors are aiming at the low-priced first-hand property market to safeguard their investment. Additionally, they are also seeking an appreciation in the future.