XN000022-1997-04-18 — Page 18

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Further enquiries can be directed to the department by contacting either the Deputy Commissioner Mr C S Wong (2805 7601), Technical Secretaries Miss Christina Yim (2805 7614) or Miss Phoebe Chau (2805 7633).

The preliminary findings of the Hong Kong Property Review 1997 are as follows:

Hong Kong Property Review 1997 Preliminary Findings

PRIVATE DOMESTIC

The number of units completed in 1996 amounted to 19,870, a figure which exceeds the forecast a year ago. The New Territories accounted for over 70%, with the largest concentration in Yuen Long.

Take-up in 1996 fell moderately from the 1995 level to 20,480 units. The year end vacancy at 34,050, or 3.7% of stock, was down slightly from the 4.1% of stock at the end of 1995.

The number of units forecast for completion in 1997 will rise to about 22,000 which, taken together with the units vacant at the end of 1996, will mean availability of around 56,000 units for occupation in 1997.

In 1998, completions are expected to increase significantly to 33,300 units, not including smaller projects which are expected to produce a significant number of flats before the end of 1998. This should bring the number of completions to about 36,000 flats in total,

Prices of flats in selected popular developments at the year end were up by 31% from December 1995 but only marginally above the April 1994 peak.

The territory-wide price index for the last quarter shows an overall increase of 23% over a year carlier but the rental index shows a much lower 4% rise.

PRIVATE NON-DOMESTIC

[Please note that there has been a change in the method of calculating vacancy for non-domestic properties due to the ending of rates refunds for vacant premises. This has generally resulted in higher vacancy figures this year because some ratepayers did not previously report vacancy. For calculating take-up this year, the 1996 vacancy figures have been adjusted to provide better comparability with the 1995 figures.]