HONG KONG: Home sales here have declined over the past week and are going through a period of consolidation, despite impressive recent gains, figures from a leading property agency show.

Sales data compiled by Ricacorp Properties shows that the number of preliminary sales agreements fell last week to 342 from 352 the week before.

The volume of sales from May 17 to 23 jumped more than 20% week-on-week, after five consecutive weeks of declines.

Ricacorp director David Chan Tai-wai said buying sentiment had been affected by the withdrawal of a tender for the HK$33 billion (RM14 billion) Nam Cheong MTR station residential project in Sham Shui Po and uncertainty over the European debt crisis.

He predicted the market would remain flat for the next two weeks, as buyers expected prices to fall.

In the primary market, property agency Midland Realty is expecting developers to gradually start putting new projects on the market, amid government policies issued in April to regulate the sale of new homes.

The measures, including offering a price list three days before homes go on sale and making transaction details public five days after deals are made, came into effect on June 1. – South China Morning Post