Investors spent more than $20 billion on income-producing property assets in Hong Kong last year, a rise of 39% compared with 2016.
The “remarkable year” pushed the territory past Tokyo to become the most active property market in the Asia-Pacific region by sales volume.
“Scarcity of land, excess capital sitting on the balance sheets of domestic buyers, as well as a flood of capital from mainland China were the main reasons for the surge in activity,” said Real Capital Analytics, the property consultancy that produced the data.
Across the region, acquisitions of income-producing property assets grew 6% over the year to reach nearly $158 billion, a record level. The growth mainly came from purchases of apartments and industrial buildings.
Cross-border capital accounted for about 30% of the purchases. Asian cross-border investors increased their acquisitions by 29% compared with the previous year.
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