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Hong Kong residential prices are still far beyond affordable

Damon Ho

The interbank offered rates have been steadily increasing, and this rapid upsurge has frightened home bargain hunters. The long-awaited rebound in the real estate market has stalled in its infancy. Despite property prices have been falling thirty percent, Hong

 Kong's housing affordability remains the highest in the world. As for per capita income, Hong Kong residents' average monthly salary has risen to 22nd in the world.  

Hong Kong's housing prices have topped the list of the world's least affordable cities for fifteen consecutive years. Despite thirty per cent drop in prices, the ranking remains unchanged, proving that the price adjustment is insufficient. Hong Kong residents,

 with 22nd-highest incomes worldwide, have to deal with the world's most expensive housing prices, and this skyr-high housing price is surely to reduce Hong Kong's competitiveness.  

While Hong Kong's housing prices have fallen, rents have risen, which was driven by an influx of highly educated professionals and the great amount of mainland Chinese students. To save rent, a certain number of Hong Kong local workers are forced to relocate

 to neighboring city like Shenzhen's Futian District. There, they can rent a small two-bedroom unit for 4000 to 5000 dollars per month, but a similar unit in Hong Kong will cost at least 13,000 dollars. This rent disparity between city is huge, the tendency

 of “going north” for expenditure is irreversible.  

For the past three decades, the land premium of Hong Kong, which was fueled by high land prices, had risen year by year. In a prolonged period of time, it helped to raise government fiscal surpluses exceeding HK$ one trillion at its peak. However, land premium has been falling since the outbreak of Covid-19. As a result, the property prices fell immensely, and it has caused a large number of investors to be insolvent, and banks’ bad debts have been mounting. Furthermore, the foreign fund Schroder, which owned the Worfu Shopping Centre, had defaulted on its loan payment. The whole block of The Nate in Tsim Sha Tsui, which was also owned by Schroders Capital and Chelsfield, had sold as a foreclosure. Even foreign funds could not avoid suffering investment losses, it is obviously that the Hong Kong property investment market remains in a critical period.  

In reality, industrial and commercial property prices and rents have already experienced a hard landing, but the negative impact has yet to emerge fully. Insolvent companies and investors are lining up to go bankrupt. While speculation in small and medium-sized

 residential properties is less severe, prices are still slowly falling. As the wave of bankruptcies is persistent and unemployment rate rises steadily, it does not have sufficient evidence proving residential property prices are bottom out. 

 
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1. HK office recorded positive net absorption 2025-08-30 20:14:00

Hong Kong’s overall office leasing market recorded a positive net absorption of 189,500 square feet in July, as tenants capitalise on soft rental rates to upgrade office spaces, according to a JLL report.

Vacancies in Hong Kong East and Kowloon East improved to 13.4% and 20.2%, respectively. However, Causeway Bay recorded negative net absorption, with the vacancy rate rising to 9.6%.

As for the residential market, transaction volumes in the primary market decreased to 1,865 units, whilst those in the secondary market rose to 3,901 units.

This has resulted in an overall month-on-month marginal decline of 3.2%, with a more significant drop in total consideration of 24.1%.

2. Retail sales value was within expectation 2025-09-02 12:05:17
The Hong Kong Retail Management Association said on Tuesday the 1.8 percent growth in retail sales to an estimated total value of HK$29.7 billion chalked up in July fell within its expectations.

The growth marked the third consecutive month of gains after the 14-month losing streak ended in May.

Speaking on an RTHK radio show, association chairwoman Annie Yau Tse attributed the growth to an increase in the number of visitors.

"The government has been stepping up the promotion of mega events and working to restore visitor numbers," she said.

"This has had a positive impact on the retail industry. Now we are starting to see tourists coming to Hong Kong, and this has helped business in some areas.