No such thing as home sweet home: Half of residents uninterested in buying property

Nearly 70% believe that home prices will climb in the next year.

Half of Hong Kong’s residents are not interested in purchasing property in Q2 as housing prices continue to skyrocket, according to the Hong Kong Residential Property Ownership Survey by Citi Hong Kong.

This contrasts with a measly fifth (19%) who have expressed interest in buying a property whilst a third (31%) are largely neutral.

Also read: Why property ownership is a pipe dream

The survey findings correspond with the rising number of Hong Kongers (73%) who believe that Q2 is a “bad/terrible time to purchase” property compared to the miniscule 3% who believe they should jump the gun and lock in home purchases now.

Similarly, the number of residents who expect homes to be more expensive in the next 12 months rose from 64% QoQ to 69% in Q2 whilst those expecting homes prices to fall dipped from 12% QoQ to 9% in Q2.

Also read: Government unveils new initiatives to ease housing crunch

Home ownership in space-starved Hong Kong has plunged below half at 49.2% last year, according to Bloomberg data, with residents opting to rent instead.

Residential property prices in the world's most expensive housing market climbed for the 26th consecutive month last May. 

Since 2010, Citibank has commissioned the HKU Social Sciences Research Centre to conduct a quarterly survey on the housing market to assess the current state of homeownership in Hong Kong, and to gauge public opinion on the subject of homeownership and public expectations in terms of future housing price trends.