On the Market:

A range of properties for lease

In the lead-up to the festive holiday season, the leasing market observed a slight slowdown in new arrivals to Hong Kong. However, activity across the rental range between $30,000 to $80,000 remained relatively stable, despite the upcoming holidays. Overall, market sentiment appears to indicate that the sales volume will decrease by up to 25 percent. However, the picture will be clearer in the first quarter of 2019. With the uncertainty in the sales market and the vacancy tax still looming, some units that had originally been built by large developers for sales have now been released to the leasing market – either for fully-furnished, short-term or unfurnished long-term leases.

There are mixed views about how the slower sales market will affect the leasing market. It’s possible that this change will see more rental demand and transactions across Hong Kong, so much so that the overall residential leasing market may not experience a downturn. We don’t expect a surge of newly available stock for lease will flood the market but rental levels and negotiability may be more subject to pockets and locations, with the ability to negotiate more competitive rentals being in areas where there is higher availability of stock.