Hong Kong private home prices barely grew last month despite the falling mortgage rate, official data showed on Thursday.
Home prices inched up 0.035 percent month-on-month in their second consecutive rise in May, but were still down 6.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest data from the Rating and Valuation Department.
The costs of residential properties decreased by 0.9 percent in the first five months of the year. They have slumped over 28 percent from the record high in September 2021.
Prices of small and medium-sized flats advanced by 0.035 percent in May while bigger flats grew at a slightly faster pace at 0.038 percent in the month.
The rebound in prices occurred at a time when the one-month Hong Kong interbank offered rate, to which mortgage rate is linked, dropped from over 4 percent on average in April to below 1 percent in the second half of May. The decrease came after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority injected more than HK$120 billion into the market amid a strong initial public offering demand in the city to defend local currency’s peg to the greenback earlier last month.
Meanwhile, the rental index continued its rising trend in May, climbing by 0.67 percent in the month. Rents increased by 2.7 percent from 12 months ago last month and have been up by 1.4 percent in the first five months of the year.
STAFF REPORTER
