There were 606 residential transactions in October, 9.7 percent less than in the previous month, according to the latest data from the Statistics and Census Service.

The month-on-month strong drop follows what had been the first increase in transaction volume since the new stamp duty on real estate transactions was announced, in mid-April; in September, housing sales had increased by 4 percent month-on-month.

Year-on-year, home sales in October were down by 53.8 percent.

In monetary terms, housing transactions in Macau were worth MOP1.66 billion (US$207 million), an 8.5 percent drop over September.