Residential housing goes up further

By
Cecilia U

During the first three months of 2017, prices of residential housing in the city further grew having gained momentum in the first quarter of last year, with the overall residential price index reaching 244, according to the latest data released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).
In terms of quarterly comparison, the index of the first quarter this year posted a 4.7 per cent increase quarter-to-quarter.
With regard to geographical distributions, DSEC data reveals that the price indices for housing on the Macau Peninsula and Taipa & Coloane stood at 245 and 239.5, indicating quarter-to-quarter increases of 4.8 per cent and 4.1 per cent, respectively.
More specifically, the overall index of existing residential units stood at 248.7, up 5.1 per cent, with the indices for both the Macau Peninsula (236) and Taipa & Coloane (305.9) growing 4.6 per cent and 6.5 per cent quarter-to-quarter, respectively.
Meanwhile, the increase in pre-sales prices of residential units appeared to have slowed down in the first quarter compared to the last quarter of 2016 (10.7 per cent increase), with the index of the first quarter posting 233.3, up 1.7 per cent quarter-to-quarter.
On the other hand, the DSEC stated that the indices for all groups of existing residential units in terms of year of completion also posted growth during the three-month period.
In particular, indices for residential units built for more than 20 years old experienced a higher quarterly increase than those that were six and 10 years old, up 6.6 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively.
For indices categorised in terms of usable floor area, the latest official data shows that usable floor area between 75 to 99.9 square metres registered the highest quarterly increase at 7.4 per cent at 224.4, followed by usable floor area of over 100 square metres, up 6.5 per cent quarter-to-quarter.
The local census body notes that the residential price index is calculated based upon the records of application for payment of stamp duty related to residential transactions, with 2011 the base year.