Property sales could tumble in Hong Kong this year as rising unemployment, higher mortgage rates and a bearish stock market sideline buyers.

According to Midland Realty, property transactions would continue to decline to below 100,000 this year, with a drop in total value to HK$300bn.

This represents a decline of more than 11% from an estimated 112,956 transactions for the whole of last year and a fall in value of about 27% from HK$411.2bn.

South China Morning Post