Centaline Mortgage Managing Director Ms. Wang Mei-fung said, the United States accumulated 7 times in the year to raise interest rates to 4.25%, and Hong Kong mortgage related 1-month Hong Kong dollar interest rate yesterday (December 14) quoted 4.97%, recently hovered at 5% more than 14 years high level, has been significantly higher than the market mortgage rate between 2.875% to 3.375%.

Reflecting the rising cost of capital for banks as a whole, there is pressure for upward adjustment of interest rates.

Ms. Wong pointed out that the US has been raising interest rates in the face of historically high inflation this year, and after this hike, the rate of increase is only about 0.5% to 0.75% before the US rate peaks.

Although the US interest rate will move sideways for a period of time after peaking next year, depending on the speed of the fall in inflation, the US will also need to deal with the economic impact of a sharp increase in interest rates after inflation has fallen significantly, and the market is worried that the US is entering a recession.

Wong Mei Fung pointed out that, benefiting from the relaxation of local and mainland epidemic prevention, Hong Kong no longer travel with peace of mind and the abolition of the yellow code, customs clearance is on the horizon, the US interest rate tops next year and the trend of interest rates into clarity and other factors, market sentiment is improving, the recent market on the second-hand transactions increased significantly.

The property market is showing signs of stabilisation and is beginning to develop a mindset of "buy late, get even" to "buy late, get expensive", which is believed to drive the property market to continue to increase. Although it is expected that the market sentiment will be affected to a certain extent after the banks raise the P rate, the interest rate hike cycle in Hong Kong is relatively milder than before, which is believed to help the market digest the impact of the rate hike faster.

On a 30-year basis, if the P rate is increased by 0.25%, the monthly mortgage payment will increase by 3.2% and the mortgage amount per $1 million will increase by $138. Taking the average mortgage amount of about $5 million as an example, if the interest rate of 3.225% is increased to 3.475% for new secondary properties by major banks, the monthly mortgage payment will increase by $691 to $22,383 (an increase of 3.2%).