According to Yeung Ming-yee, Senior Associate Director of Centaline Property Research, of the 56,529 units sold in the first-time private residential sales between 2016 and 2019, 11% were resold.

In terms of room type, the highest proportion of second-hand resales was recorded for open-plan units, with 16%.

The second highest percentage of resales was recorded for 1-bedroom units, followed by 14% for 1-bedroom units, and the lowest percentage of resales was recorded for 4-bedroom units or above, at 6%. In other words, the larger the room type, the lower the percentage of resale.

In terms of year of first-hand purchase, the overall proportion of second-hand resales for new properties purchased between 2016 and 2017 was 18%, but only 5% for those purchased between 2018 and 2019, a decrease of 13 percentage points.

As property prices were relatively low in the early years, there was more room for profit in the second-hand sector, but as property prices rose subsequently, the room for profit narrowed, resulting in a significant drop in the proportion of resales.

The proportion of resales of open-plan units purchased in 2016-2017 reached 31%, but fell sharply to only 5% for those purchased in 2018-2019, a difference of 26 percentage points between the two periods and the largest decrease of any of the five housing types.

In terms of the proportion of profitable resale transactions, the proportion of profitable small and medium-sized units purchased in 2016-2017 was over 90%, with 91%, 97% and 92% for open-plan, 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom units respectively. However, the proportion of profitable purchases in 2018-2019 dropped to 54%, 70% and 66% respectively. Open plan fell more, by 37 percentage points, while 2-bedroom fell the least, by 26 percentage points.

In terms of average book profitability, open-plan and 1-bedroom resale purchases made between 2016 and 2017 had the highest average profitability, at 24.2% and 25.2% respectively. The lowest margin of profit was recorded for 4 bedrooms or more, at 14%. However, the profit margin for open-plan and 1-bedroom purchases in 2018-2019 narrowed significantly to 9.4% and 10.5%, down by almost 15 percentage points, while the profit margin for 4-bedroom and above also narrowed to 6.2%, down by a smaller 7.8 percentage points.

In terms of the proportion of resale sales at a loss, the proportion of small and medium-sized units purchased at a loss was less than 10% between 2016 and 2017, with open-plan, 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom units recording a loss of 9%, 3% and 7% respectively. However, the percentage of open-plan units purchased at a loss rose to 45% in 2018-2019, a significant increase of 36 percentage points. The highest percentage of losses was recorded for units with 4 or more bedrooms in both periods, with 33% and 63% respectively, an increase of 30 percentage points, but less than for open-plan units.

In terms of average book loss, the lowest average loss of 6.8% was recorded for resale of open-plan units purchased in 2016-2017, while the highest was recorded for 4 bedrooms or above at 11.6%. The rate of loss for 4 bedrooms or above increased by only 2 percentage points to 13.6%, a relatively small increase.

This article selects first-time new launches by the top five developers and projects with 300 units or more by other developers from 2016 to 2019. The number of units sold is based on the sales information of the Residential Properties for Sale website and the number of secondary resales registered in the Land Registry up to 31 March 2023.