1 December 2014 - Q4 is largely seen as the low season in the Hong Kong rental market, with rentals in October appearing to have taken this into account, growing only 1.2% month-on-month compared to 2.1% growth in September. Despite this, abundant demand has already triggered a 10%+ increase in rentals over the previous 6 months – a trend that is expected to continue, albeit moderately in the short term.

 

Meanwhile, purchase prices of properties in the second hand market have achieved another record high. The latest Centa-City Index (CCL) released on 28 November showed an increase of 0.42% to a new peak of 130.16 after a slight drop of 0.06% last week. Partially attributed to a rebound in the CCL large units’ index by 0.51% to 129.73 points, the change marks the end of a consecutive fall in prices during the past 3 weeks. 

 

Inflation of both rental and property prices has resulted in a stable rate of return. Calculated based on the latest statistics, the rate of return (excluding additional costs such as government rates and management fees) is 3.9%, close to the 4% level recorded at the end of last year.