Mainland Chinese buyers fuel 25% of Hong Kong home sales last quarter

Mainland Chinese homebuyers remain a strong driving force in Hong Kong’s residential property market, spending HK$38 billion (US$4.9 billion) to account for 25 per cent of the city’s total home transactions in the third quarter, according to Centaline Property Agency.

Buyers with names in pinyin – the mainland’s system of romanisation of Chinese script – registered 3,797 deals between July and September, up 7 per cent from the previous quarter, Centaline said in a report on Monday.

It noted that during this period, the number of transactions for primary and secondary private residential properties across Hong Kong reached 15,000, with mainland buyers making up a quarter of the activity.

Market sentiment has been gradually warming up since Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu scrapped all property cooling measures in last year’s policy address and the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a cumulative 1.25 percentage points since September 2024.

That shift had encouraged mainland buyers to accelerate their market entry, said Louis Chan Wing-kit, CEO of Centaline’s residential division.

Potential buyers and property agents at the sales office of a Wan Chai residential project. Photo: Edmond So

The total investment by those buyers reached HK$38 billion last quarter, surging 14 per cent from the June quarter and maintaining a spending level of more than HK$30 billion for the second consecutive quarter, according to the report.

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