Property prices and the number of transactions have gone up slightly in the second quarter of this year because Macau’s low prices are attracting overseas buyers to invest in the market, Centaline Macau & Hengqin Property Agency Director Jacky Shek Pou Tak said on Wednesday.
The Hong Kong real estate agency’s local office held a press conference on its premises in Macau Square where its senior staff gave a review of the local property market in the first half of the year.
According to the presentation, 1,087 and 1,036 transactions were recorded in April and May respectively, numbers rarely reached in the past three years. There were about 794 transactions in June, up 24 per cent year-on-year. In total for the first half year, there were 4,178 transactions. There were just 5,744 transactions for the whole of last year.
Shek said that the small boost was due to a new residential project rolling out some of its luxury flats on the market, as well as the post-Brexit impact and several countries implementing quantitative easing (QE) policies which have led capital to flow into the Asia market.
“New properties in Hong Kong and Zhuhai have already successfully attracted quite a lot of external capital,” Shek said, adding that compared with Hong Kong and Zhuhai, Macau’s property prices are the lowest, which could attract a new batch of overseas capital.
Moreover, thanks to the exchange rate of the yuan, mainlanders may also be investing in Macau, Shek said that while the third quarter would be similar to the second quarter, he expected to see “a significant growth” in property prices and the number of transactions in the fourth quarter.
(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily)
