Housing market activity on the rise

New home transactions soared over 14 times to 4,200 cases after housing curbs were scrapped, marking a fresh 26-year high. The number of transactions in the top 10 secondary housing estates also increased by 2.6 times to 359 deals per month, according to Midland Realty.

Buggle Lau Ka-fai, chief analyst at Midland Realty, said demand is dominated by house residents and long-term investors. He estimated that the number of first-hand transactions in April may fall back, but the number of transactions in the second quarter might be between 5,500 and 6,000, up by up to 22 percent quarter-on-quarter.

The first round of sales for 422 flats in Phase 3B, Blue Coast, in the south of Hong Kong Island, will be launched on Saturday.

Prices after discount range from HK$8.78 million to HK$26.49 million.

The project, which was developed by CK Asset Holdings and the MTR Corporation, priced its third batch of 174 units at Blue Coast in Aberdeen at HK$23,892 per square foot on average, about 5.2 percent higher than the second one, after receiving over 12,000 checks by Monday.

The new units include 38 two-bedroom and 136 three-bedroom units. Their prices after discount range from HK$9.54 million to HK$26.49 million.

CK Asset will slowly adjust prices for the project, with larger increases for unreleased units to record fewer losses, said executive director Justin Chiu Kwok-hung.

The number of mortgage loans for completed homes increased by 15 percent monthly to 4,146 in March, hitting a new high in four months, but still 45 percent lower than one year ago, according to mReferral Mortgage Brokerage Service.

Lau believes potential buyers will enter the market without waiting on the US to cut interest rates.

Uptown East, a project developed by Wong Sun Hing Group in Kowloon Bay, has raked in HK$2.2 billion after selling 327 units. The rest of the units are mostly two-room flats. The developer said it won't rule out price increases in the future.

The number of real estate agents rebounded by 0.17 percent monthly to 39,116 last month, ending an 11-month losing streak, data from Estate Agents Authority showed.

K&K Property expects to post its tender sale arrangement within seven days for One Stanley in Stanley.

Lau predicts the number of transactions in the secondary market will rise by 36 percent to 13,500 deals in the second quarter.