Yang Mingyi, Senior Associate Director of Research at Centaline Property, pointed out that the relevant situation reflected the continued high interest rates in Hong Kong during June, buyers' cautious attitude towards entering the market, and muted market transactions, which affected the downward adjustment of the registration volume for the fourth consecutive month, with a cumulative drop of 48.5 per cent.

As for the Government's relaxation of the loan-to-value ratio on 7 July and the further 0.125% interest rate hike by Hong Kong's major banks on 27 July, the impact on the property market will only begin to be reflected in the registration figures for August and September.

Specifically, there were 3,065 residential property transactions and $26.591 billion registered in July, compared with 3,613 transactions and $33.621 billion in June, a drop of 15.2% and 20.9% respectively. Both the number and value of sales were at six-month lows since January 2023, when there were 3,051 cases and $25.431 billion.

The number of residential property sales fell by more than 50% from the peak of 6,690 in March this year, with a cumulative drop of 54.2% in four months.

For first-hand private residential properties, 829 and $7.92 billion were recorded in July, down 17.9% and 37.5% respectively from 1,010 and $12.68 billion in June.

The number of first-hand transactions fell below the 1,000 level, with the number of transactions at a five-month low since February 2023 and the value at a six-month low since January 2023, indicating that developers are actively launching new flats for sale but the pace of sales has slowed down, leading to a slowdown in the first-hand market.