Property agencies say that the rebound in the secondary market last week can slightly lighten the grim market sentiment. AFP

Local property dealers may take a sigh of relief after secondary property transactions saw a 30 percent rebound last week, following a five-year low earlier this month.

Property agency Ricacorp Properties said that transactions of the top 10 real estates bounced back 30 percent last week to 133 contracts.

Blue-chip real estate Kingswood Villas and City One Plaza were at the top among their peers with 23 and 21 transactions, respectively. Hong Kong Island property South Horizons saw transactions up by 44 percent to 9.

The financial tsunami severely hurt the secondary housing market, with only 1,148 overall transactions recorded for the first two weeks in November, while the transaction value amounted to HK$3.02 billion.

Wong Leung-sing, associate director with the research department of Centaline Property, earlier predicted that overall transaction volume and transaction value for the whole month could drop to a five-year low of 2,800 and HK$7.5 billion, respectively.

However, property agencies felt that the rebound last week can slightly lighten the grim sentiment.

"Given many local lenders are easing their grips on mortgage lending, plus the stock market has stabilized, many prospective buyers took the opportunity to snatch stocks when they were cheap," said David Chan, executive director of Ricacorp Properties.

Chan believed that transaction volume of the top-10 real estates will resume to the level of 150 a week in the near future.

Midland Property Group Executive Director Vincent Chan believed that the worst moment was over. "Many sellers marked down prices by 30 percent in a hurry to offload their stocks a few weeks ago. Flat prices were significantly undershot," he added.

As the market becomes more stable, many homebuyers, especially the genuine users, will get into the market, Chan said.

Centaline Finance Director and General Manager Hendrick Leung said that the market atmosphere slightly improved last week. "Attitudes of some sellers have been softened in terms of setting their prices."

Regarding some local lenders lowering their mortgage ceilings for homebuyers, Leung believed mortgages the lenders offered can sufficiently cover homebuyers' payments after the recent price reduction.

However, Leung predicted that the number of secondary-market transactions will stay flat in the fourth quarter, given that many prospective buyers remain cautious amid the unstable market condition.

(HK Edition 11/19/2008 page2)