Realtors: January housing transactions may hit new low

The city’s real estate market is still depressed – with residential transactions probably posting lower numbers for January compared to December 2015, due to the economic downturn coupled with festive factors, local property agents say. “We estimate that total housing transactions since the beginning of the year will drop further from last December. After all, it has been a festive season these two months, with many property agents going on vacation. As such, the number of customers has also decreased,” the managing director of RicaCorp (Macau) Properties Ltd., Jane Liu, told Business Daily in a phone interview. Meanwhile, Centaline (Macau) Property Agency Ltd’s deputy regional sales director, John Ng, anticipated in the firm’s latest note that the city’s total housing transaction for last month may only total around 200, compared to December’s 501 transactions. “Residents’ sentiments looking for housing units were obviously low in January as it was near the Chinese New Year and was affected by the recent cold weather,” the agent said. If Mr. Ng is correct, it would mean the lowest January housing transaction number since such data was released by the Financial Services Bureau (DSF) in 2010, coming on top of a year-on-year slump of 40 per cent from January 2015’s 336 transactions. Rebound or not On the other hand, the Centaline deputy regional sales director said in the note that local housing prices may rebound after the Chinese New Year by slightly three per cent, as market sentiment should start getting active again. But RicaCorp’s managing director does not see the city’s real estate market displaying the conditions to spring back. “Despite the drop in gaming revenues narrowing a bit in January, the junket operations are still under pressure. As such, the overall atmosphere of the property market is still not that good,” Ms. Liu said. “Based on the data we have gathered since the beginning of this year, we notice that many landlords, especially those holding a few properties in hand, have tended to drop their sale prices for their units,” she added. Rental not that affected On the contrary, both agents indicated that the local rental market remains active, attributable to support from non-resident personnel working in the Special Administrative Region. “The city’s rental market is primarily supported by foreign tenants, such as engineers from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia as well as foreign chiefs,” Mr. Ng wrote. “Take Taipa as an example; the rental market there is supported by the professional personnel who work for hotels and construction. Although the average rent in Taipa is down by some 30 per cent from its peak, the decrease is due to the increase in supply, such as from One Oasis and Nova Park,” Ms. Liu posited. Nevertheless, she noted that the rental market in the NAPE district on the Peninsula is another story. “The rental market in the district used to be supported by casino people. As such, we see that rents there have plunged by between some 40 and 45 per cent from their highest,” the agent claimed. Forecasting the housing market for the rest of the year, the RicaCorp head predicts that the city’s average housing price would not drop by more than 10 per cent. “This is because current housing prices are already very close to the bottom. When you try to sell your property, you still need to balance your profits and the costs you have. Hence, recently we see that many landlords have preferred leasing out their units rather than putting them on sale,” Ms. Liu explained.