Hong Kong property developers witnessed a surge in stock prices following Financial Secretary Paul Chan\u2019s decision to eliminate property cooling measures in a bid to stimulate the sector, which has been grappling with high borrowing costs and subdued economic sentiment.<\/p>\n
In his budget speech, Chan announced the withdrawal of all buy-side tightening measures for residential properties and the immediate waiver of stamp duties on the transfer of REIT units. The Hang Seng Property index rallied 2.4% in response to the news, although it moderated from session highs, while the broader Hang Seng index experienced a 1.47% decline.<\/p>\n
Shares of key developers soared, with New World Development climbing over 8% initially before settling at a 4% increase, and Hysan Development adding 0.3%. Sun Hung Kai Properties and CK Asset rose 1.35% and 0.55% respectively, while Henderson Land Development saw a substantial 3.83% gain.<\/p>\n
The move comes amid a significant downturn in Hong Kong\u2019s housing market, with prices plummeting nearly 20% since their peak in 2021. Transaction volumes have also declined, prompting the government to take decisive action to stimulate activity.<\/p>\n
Peter Churchouse, managing director of Portwood Capital, expressed optimism about the impact of the stamp duty reductions, predicting a swift increase in transaction volumes and a potential uptick in property prices by the year\u2019s end. He noted the positive implications for the broader stock market, which has faced significant declines in recent years.<\/p>\n
Chan also hinted at further policy easing in property lending, with the Monetary Authority expected to make announcements later. He forecasted economic growth in the range of 2.5% to 3.5% for the year ahead and allocated over 1 billion Hong Kong dollars ($127 million) to support the tourism industry as part of broader efforts to bolster economic recovery.<\/p>\n
The scrapping of cooling measures signals a proactive approach by the government to revitalize the property market and stimulate economic activity, with hopes of reigniting investor confidence and driving growth across key sectors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Government\u2019s Move to Lift Restrictions Boosts Developer Confidence and Market Sentiment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":331,"featured_media":32416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[6819,217],"class_list":["post-32702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate","tag-houses","tag-real-estate"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}