Habitat Insights: The Peak - a buoyant start to 2021

First Quarter 2021 Overview

The first quarter in 2021 has seen a distinct upturn in activity in the prime Hong Kong Property Sales market. Transactions on The Peak have been particularly buoyant, with 3 key sales at Wheelock’s new development 77 Peak Road reportedly at $598M ($80,000/sf), $551M ($87,000/sf) and $558M ($92,000/sf), as well as sales in the upmarket complexes at 56 Peak Road & 59 Plantation Road. Other notable The Peak sales highlights have been at Central Peak, Sun Hung Kai’s recently released project on Stubbs Road, which has recorded several strong sales at up to $89,000/sf and Cheung Kong’s 21 Borrett Road which just set a record deal at $459m or $136,000/sf.

Momentum has been driven by various factors:

• Pent up demand
• Increased confidence as vaccines are rolled out
• Low-interest rates
• Record performances across various industry sectors such as technology, real estate, retail, pharmaceuticals
• Strong consumer benefits from the stock market surge
• In summary, there is a lot of liquidity in a low rate environment, so property is not only appealing but investors are now looking for increased diversification.

We are also seeing increased Leasing activity on The Peak as many properties with larger internal space, a fourth bedroom and larger outside spaces are becoming increasingly sought after and commanding a rental premium.

We expect this trend to continue and have already started to see sentiment flow to other price points into other areas of the Hong Kong Property market where we are seeing prices stabilize and transaction activity increase.