Central Plains: Hong Kong's medium- and high-priced residential performance was excellent, with sales of HK$10 million to HK$50 million a second-hand private property reached about 90% of the year last year

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Yang Mingyi, senior co-director of the Central Plains Real Estate Research Department, pointed out that since May 2025, interest rates have fallen below the peak interest rate, Hong Kong property prices have bottomed out and regained their upward trend. In addition, investors have also emerged and residential property values have rebounded. CCL has rebounded from a low level by nearly 20%. The purchasing power of the market has clearly switched from low-priced buildings to medium- and high-priced housing.

The number of registered first-hand and second-hand private residential sales in the first 7 months of 2026 reached nearly 90% and over 90% for the full year of 2025, respectively. As a result, the medium to high price ratio increased. Only the proportion of low-priced properties of HK$5 million or less fell, while the proportion of high-priced luxury homes above HK$50 million remained flat.

The number of registered second-hand private residential sales contracts in Hong Kong in the first seven months of 2026 was 30,175, reaching 75.8% of the 39,821 sales in 2025, up from 64.4% of first-hand sales during the same period, indicating that the second-hand market situation this year is even hotter than first-hand.

Among them, 427 high-priced second-hand transactions of HK$3,001 to HK$50 million and HK$10,000 to HK$30 million were recorded, reaching 98.8% and 93.7% of the previous year. As a result, the number of cases increased by 0.3 and 2.9 percentage points to 15.2% and 1.4% compared to 2025, reaching 6-year and 4-year highs.

Although property prices have stopped falling and rebounded, they are still more than one-half lower than the record high in 2021. Interest rates have declined and banks have promoted mortgage concessions. Coupled with easing the mortgage ceiling to 70% in 2024 and under stress-free tests, many buyers have taken the opportunity to buy larger units, stimulate the increase in property exchanges and investors, and drive active middle- and high-priced second-hand trading.

Meanwhile, 11,386 second-hand transactions of 501 to HK$10 million were recorded, reaching 79.0% of the previous year. All transactions accounted for 37.7% of the record, an increase of 1.5 percentage points. In contrast, second-hand low-priced properties worth HK$5 million or less reached only 68.5% of last year, which was a poor performance. As a result, the proportion of cases declined slightly to 44.9% in the first 7 months, down 4.8 percentage points from 2025, ending a four-year continuous rise.

In addition, high-priced second-hand transactions of HK$50 million or more reached 80.1% of the year last year, while the proportion remained unchanged, between 0.5% and 0.7% for 6 consecutive years.

On the first hand side, the number of first-hand private residential sales contracts registered in Hong Kong in the first seven months of 2026 was 13,227, or 64.4% of the 20,525 in 2025. Among them, 3,131 and 460 high first-hand transactions of HK$10,000 to HK$30 million and HK$3,001 to HK$50 million were recorded, reaching 88.9% and 85.5% of the previous year. As a result, the number of cases increased by 6.5 and 0.9 percentage points to 23.7% and 3.5% compared to 2025, reaching 5-year and 6-year highs.

First-hand transactions of HK$501 to HK$10 million recorded 7,879, reaching 79.0% of the year last year. The proportion of cases rose to nearly 60%, or 59.6%, an increase of 11 percentage points, to a six-year high.

However, the number of first-hand transactions for low-priced properties of HK$5 million or less this year was only 23.5% of last year, outperforming the market. As a result, the share clearly fell from nearly 30% to only 10%, and the proportion plummeted by 18.4 percentage points.

The property market has improved, and property prices have continued to rise. Developers' sales strategies are no longer seeking volume at low prices; they are gradually increasing prices for new listings. Moreover, they are mainly selling medium- and high-priced properties this year, causing the ratio of first-hand low-priced properties to drop to a five-year low level after 2021. At the peak of the property market in 2021, the first-hand low price ratio was only 10%. As for the number of high-priced first-hand transactions of HK$50 million or more, it reached 63.9% last year, accounting for a relatively stable share, and remained at 2.8% for 3 consecutive years.