There were 145 residential properties sold in Macao in the first half of November, down 16 percent in comparison to the 173 properties that changed hands in the second half of October. That’s according to stamp duty data from the Finance Bureau.
All three of Macao’s main districts saw their sales figures dip during this period, including the peninsula, which suffered a drop of almost 16 percent, with its sales totalling 102. Transactions in Taipa also fell by around 16 percent, plummeting to 36. Coloane, meanwhile, saw only 7 residential properties sold, a decrease of around 22 percent.
In comparison to the latter half of October, the overall average residential property price per square metre also fared poorly, dropping to 72,982 patacas – a decrease of almost 5 percent.
[See more: October’s residential property sales grow by 31 percent compared to September]
When analysed by area, prices in Taipa suffered the heaviest fall, plummeting by 15 percent to 71,805 patacas. This was followed by Coloane, where property prices fell to 84,426, a decrease of 10 percent. Meanwhile, the price for the peninsula experienced a decline of 3 percent, falling to 72,613 patacas.
Some local property experts remain cautiously optimistic about the future of Macao’s property market, especially following the cutting of interest rates in September, which they believe will help to boost the industry.
But while overall residential transactions for October grew by 31 percent, the average residential property price dipped by 9.2 percent to 79,641 patacas. In a report released earlier this year, before the SAR government’s lifting of property curbs, the real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) predicted that the market’s recovery would “remain slow.”
