〈Ejinsight, December 15, 2018〉More than half of Hong Kong residents expect home prices in the city to fall over the next twelve months, with the bearish view gaining ground significantly since the third quarter of this year, a private survey shows.

According to the latest Citibank 2018 Residential Property Ownership Survey, which was conducted during this quarter, 57 percent of the people polled said they believe home prices in Hong Kong will drop in the year to come.

The marks a sharp increase in such expectations from the previous quarter, when only 29 percent said they think prices will decline in the next 12 months, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reports.Also, it is worth noting that in the fourth quarter last year, only 10 percent of the respondents in a similar survey said they expect prices will fall going forward.

For the latest survey, Citibank interviewed 500 citizens, nearly half of whom were homeowners.It found that only 18 percent of the respondents expressed high or some interest in buying property, representing no obvious change from the third quarter.Asked whether they think now is a good time to purchase homes, 67 percent said no, compared to 74 percent a quarter earlier, while 4 percent said yes, slightly up from 2 percent in such view in the prior quarter.

Of the respondents that were not homeowners, 63 percent were not hopeful they will be able to afford a home in the next 10 years. Almost half, 45 percent, said they would rather spend their money on holidays abroad and dining out than save up for a down payment on a home.Lawrence Lam Chi-kong, general manager of Citibank (Hong Kong), said the bank's surveys have, over the years, shown that interviewees had often been pretty accurate in predicting market corrections.The reasons for why people are now not seeing a bright prospect for home prices include an unclear economic environment and the interest-rate hike cycle that is underway,

〈Asian Post, December 14, 2018〉A low-price strategy has attracted anxious property buyers to a prime Hong Kong residential project, generating the strongest sales since October.

In stark contrast to recent disappointing sales launches, buyers shrugged off the cold weather to snap up the entire first batch of 488 flats on offer at Sino Land's Grand Central 1,999-unit development in Kwun Tong yesterday.

"I've done some comparisons, and I found the price really attractive," said Li, the first buyer of the project in East Kowloon.

Li, who did not give her first name, paid HK$16 million for a three-bedroom flat.

Sino Land offered an average discounted price of about HK$17,388 per square foot, 14 per cent lower than similar new project launches nearby.

For instance, a 504 sq ft unit at Vibe Centro by mainland developer Poly Property Group in Kai Tak, the site of Hong Kong's former international airport, was sold at HK$11.71 million, or HK$20,300 per square foot, in November.

"The price we set is quite attractive and we hope it could be a Christmas gift to our buyers," said Daryl Ng, deputy chairman of Sino Land.

Yesterday's sale attracted 7,758 prospective buyers to sign up for the first batch of flats on offer, meaning there were about 88 bids for each home.

Richard Lee, chief executive at real estate agency Hong Kong Property, said that as long as developers were willing to lower prices to a more reasonable level, there were still many buyers waiting to enter the market.

〈The Standard, December 13, 2018〉Link Reit, Asia's largest real estate investment trust, said it would sell 12 shopping centres to a consortium led by private equity fund Gaw Capital Partners for a combined HK$12 billion.

Blackstone, another private equity fund, is part of the consortium, according to sources.

Link Reit said the sale would generate a net disposal gain of HK$2.78 billion, according to an announcement yesterday.

The shopping centres included the Lei Tung Estate mall in Ap Lei Chau, the Wang Fai Centre in Wang Tau Hom, the Shan King Commercial Centre in Tuen Mun and the Chun Shek Commercial Complex in Sha Tin, Link Reit said.

"Despite the recent market volatility, the property sale attracted overwhelming interest from leading international investors, including global and regional private equity funds, as well as local investors," said George Hongchoy, the chief executive of Link Asset Management, the manager of Link Reit.

"The competitive bids and the final sale price, at better pricing than achieved in past disposals, underline global investors' confidence in the Hong Kong economy and its real estate sector while further demonstrating Link's ability in managing and enhancing assets."

The transaction price represents a premium of about 32 per cent to the appraised value of the portfolio as of September 30.

Link Reit said the proceeds would be used for investment in Hong Kong and first-tier cities on the mainland, as well as for general working capital purposes, including debt repayment and perhaps buy-backs.

〈Asian Post, December 12, 2018〉It is impossible to quantify the effect of measures to cool Hong Kong's property market. With demand having been fuelled by a sustained cheap credit cycle, we can only wonder what heights it might have scaled without them, and how hard the eventual landing would be. Now investor sentiment has softened. Uncertainty about future growth and the course of interest rates has taken its toll, amid United States-China trade tensions.

As a result, the residential market has slowed since snapping a 28-month run of price gains in August, with the median price dropping 3.7 per cent since then. That is not a downward cycle yet, although as we reported yesterday investors have been selling to lock in gains in case there is one. But expect a clamour for removal of the cooling measures anyway if the market does not pick up.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has rightly sought to manage such expectations, even as a new report showed investors do expect a slowdown during the coming year. "Don't count on the government rescuing the market," she said in a speech to an economic conference. "The [slowdown] has not even offset the increase at the beginning of this year." That said, if the property market does enter a downward cycle the government would consider some easing measures, according to Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief Norman Chan Tak-lam.

The new report, from Collier International, shows local investors expect the commercial market to slow next year in the face of geopolitical uncertainties and rising interest rates. These concerns could impact more severely in the residential market, with agencies Centaline and Midland tipping prices to decline by up to 15 per cent.

〈The Standard, December 11, 2018〉Sunevision (1686) fought off eight other tenderers to win a site for a data center on a 50-year land grant in Tseung Kwan O for HK$5.46 billion.

That is higher than estimated and analysts believe this reflects the huge demand for data centers.

Analysts had estimated the site was worth HK$1.76 billion to HK$1.82 billion.

The data center is on Lot No 131 with up to 27,444 square meters designated for high-tier data. The Tseung Kwan O and Wan Po area has up to 10 data centers.

The minimum gross floor area is 67,587 square meters and the maximum 112,640 sq m, at HK$4,500 per square feet of floor space.

John Siu, managing director Hong Kong at Cushman & Wakefield, said this site is the second plot the government designated for a high-tier data center and the price of the floor space is five times that of land in the same area five years ago.

Siu said the market has great demand for data centers industrial buildings and warehouses cannot be transformed.

Construction of a data center is different from other projects. The ceiling height is no less than 4.5 meters and the structure load per square feet is at least 200 pounds, which increases construction cost.

The data center will contain 14,000 to 16,000 cabinet server racks and fulfill the data use for Tseung Kwan O and East Kowloon.

Meanwhile, in the property market, the number of transactions on Special Stamp Duty, Buyer's Stamp Duty and Double Stamp Duty declined 10 percent month-on-month to 2,118 in November, the lowest since February 2017. The duty collected decreased 40 percent to HK$1.72 billion, the lowest since December 2016, and down about 70 percent compared with HK$5.63 billion in June this year.