Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

Hong Kong’s stock of unsold homes rises to a decade high of 10,000

The expanding stock underscores the proposal by Chief Executive Carrie Lam to tax developers to bring housing supply in line with demand and help rein in prices.

Hong Kong’s inventory of unsold residential property rose to the highest in more than a decade, as uncertainties brought by the US-China trade war and the city’s ongoing political unrest deterred buyers from big-ticket purchases.

The figure stood at 10,000 unsold homes at the end of the second quarter, 1,000 units more than the end of March, according to data by the Transport and Housing Bureau.

The expanding stock – fewer than Hong Kong’s first-half home sales – underscores the proposal by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to tax developers to bring housing supply in line with demand and help rein in prices. It also adds fuel to forecasts of an imminent crest in home prices
, as supply shows signs of outstripping demand.

“Developers still need to proactively sell completed new projects to avoid special rates,” said Centaline Property Agency’s senior associate research director Wong Leung-sing, referring to the vacancy tax. “The 10,000 completed unsold homes has just reached the warning level. Do not let the number rise.”

The proposed duty, if and when it is passed by the city’s legislature, will slap a retroactive duty of about 5 per cent of a property’s value on the developer if the property remains unsold a year after its completion.

In response, developers have accelerated their sales pace to clear as much stock as possible before the proposed tax kicks in, said JLL’s senior director of valuation advisory services Cliff Tse.

“Although it is yet to be passed by the [legislature], developers are expected to be more sensitive to the market sentiment in adjust the construction progress,” said Tse, whose firm expects average prices to drop 5 per cent this year. “They might slow down the construction work of their new projects if market sentiment and outlook are not optimistic. Slowdown of construction could mitigate the burden of paying special rates if they forecast difficulties of selling new units.”

The marketing and sales campaigns ran into headwinds in May and June, when the year-long US-China trade war went up a notch, while Hong Kong was rocked by an unprecedented level of public unrest and civic strife through incessant street protests.

Wang On Properties sold two units of 104 flats at its Maya by Nouvelle project in Yau Tong on May 25, the second consecutive weekend of flops, as an unexpected deterioration in US-China relations gave buyers cause for pause.

Sentiments worsened from there, after an estimated 1 million people marched on the streets on June 9 to oppose a controversial extradition bill. Even though the chief executive Lam declared the bill “dead,” protest rallies have persisted, and have turned increasingly violent.

Wing Tai Properties and China Overseas Land & Investment managed to sell only a quarter of the 442 new apartments on offer in Tuen Mun and Tai Po on July 13, as buyers gave their collective cold shoulder to the biggest sale of new homes in a month.

Fullsun International Holdings Group postponed a sale of the first 30 of 79 apartments at its La Salle Residence flats in Kowloon Tong, citing “a change in market sentiment”.

“Overall home sales in late June has obviously slowed down,” said Ricacorp Properties’ research head Derek Chan.

Most of the flats that are left empty are luxury abodes, defined as those that cost at least HK$20 million (US$2.56 million), said Chan.

Some developers have slowed their construction speed as the inventory rose, with commencements shrinking by 26 per cent to 1,700 in the three months ended June, the slowest quarterly pace since the third quarter of 2017.

“It is worse than expected,” said Thomas Lam, executive director at Knight Frank, which said home price could drop 5 per cent in the second half of this year and high supply could weigh on prices.

Chan of Ricacorp said the sharp fall was because the developers needed time to change the layout of large flats to smaller sizes to sell faster ahead of the imminent imposed vacancy tax and wanted to focus on selling accumulated stock.

Chan warned that the number of homes that started construction could dive further as the amount of land that the government can offer to sell is “diminishing”, adding the situation in future will be even more “dire”.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
×