HONG KONG, July 4 (Reuters) - Hong Kong said on Thursday it will sell one residential site and offer no commercial land for sale in the July-September quarter, the fourth quarter in a row, because of high vacancy rates.
"Vacancies in commercial sites are on the high side," Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn told a press conference, citing a vacancy rate of 13% estimated by realtors.
"When creating land (the government) has to look at the market conditions."
Linn said the decision to sell only one residential site in this quarter also reflected current market conditions, though noted that Hong Kong's economic recovery was picking up pace.
In the previous quarter, the city also only sold one residential land after no land was sold at all for the first time in the first three months of 2024.
Real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield on Wednesday forecast office rents in the city would drop between 7% and 9% this year. Office rents were already down 38% since the 2019 peak because companies are still trying to reduce costs and the market needs more time to absorb the ample office supply.
Hong Kong's private home prices fell in May after much of the pent-up homebuying demand was digested following the lift of all property curbs in February and are down around 20% from their 2021 peak. (Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
