GoHome.com.hk online Survey reveals Hong Kongers are Optimistic about the Property Market
Majority of Hong Kongers think property prices have already bottomed out and are waiting for the upturn of the market

HONG KONG, 10 March 2009 – GoHome.com.hk (www.gohome.com.hk), Hong Kong’s No.1 property website and part of the iProperty.com Group (www.iproperty.com), reveals the results of its latest survey on the real estate market, which shows that the majority of Hong Kongers tends to be optimistic about the state of the property market.

Results of two separate polls, which were carried out from 22 January to 26 February 2009 in three countries - Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong – show that property players in Hong Kong are taking a wait-and-see approach with majority of respondents opining that property prices will not go drop much anymore and are waiting for things to turn around.

Poll 1: Should I wait for market conditions to improve before selling my property?

• On selling properties, out of the total 122 respondents who participated in the first poll, 55.8% of respondents felt that the current market conditions are not favourable to sell their properties now, and would prefer to wait for the upturn of the market,
• 30.3% of respondents felt that the market would get worse and prefer to let go of their properties now to cut their losses. 
• A minority of 13.9% believed that market conditions may not be ideal, but remained confident of getting good prices for their properties.

Chart 1: Hong Kong, Poll results

Poll 2: Considering current market conditions, do you think this is the best time to buy property?

• On buying properties, the second poll - which had a total of 248 respondents – shows buyers are very optimistic about the market whopping 86.3% of respondents felt that property prices are at the lowest, hence it would be a good time to buy. 
• Only a minority of 13.7% felt that the timing was not right to purchase property, as they believed that chances of property prices dipping in the next six months are high.

Chart 2: Hong Kong, poll results

Amongst the three countries surveyed, the views of property players are quite different with Hong Kongers taking the wait-and-see approach, Malaysians being the most optimistic and Singaporeans are the most pessimistic about the property market.  Given current market conditions, Hong Kong buyers are inclined to buy but the sellers are not ready to sell.

Executive Chairman of the iProperty.com Group, Patrick Grove, says “Despite the global financial crisis, Hong Kongers are still optimistic about the property market in 2009.  We have been witnessing a significant increase in our website traffic, especially in the first two months of this year.”

He added, “Only 10,000 to 11,000 new properties are expected to be completed in 2009 and 2010 respectively. There will be a serious shortage of new homes as this supply is significantly below market demand of 19,500 per year. Therefore, this situation will inevitably apply upward pressure on property prices and hence buyers will consider now to be a good time to buy property.  We are also expecting more Hong Kongers to start looking for rental properties in the second half of the year as property prices begin to rise.”

GoHome.com.hk is part of the iProperty.com Group, which is Asia’s leading network of property portals.
Being the largest property website in Hong Kong, GoHome.com.hk provides over 80,000 listings of over 200 property agencies to home seekers, including second-hand listings, new developments and serviced apartments.  Its over 100,000 registered members can get the latest transaction data and other value-added services such like email alerts for free that helps to make their property search process  quick and easy.  In January 2009, GoHome.com.hk also launched the new home service section for offering comprehensive range of home products and services to property owners.

In addition to the speed and convenience of the internet, iProperty.com websites provide consumers with a greatly enhanced property hunting experience via a comprehensive range of features and property hunting tools. These include a powerful search function; a large database of the latest listings complemented by photos, videos, virtual tours and Google maps; email alerts; a large pool of useful resources and guides, and iExpert, a novel platform for users to seek answers and share knowledge on property related matters. On top of that, it regularly carries out surveys and polls to collate useful data for its consumers, as an added value for property hunters and sellers alike.

About GoHome network (www.gohome.com.hk) 
The GoHome network is Hong Kong’s No.1 real estate portal both in terms of number of listings and user traffic, as measured by ComScore. Over 578,000 unique users view the network’s property listings each month. The GoHome sites, which are Chinese language based but also available in English, reach over 45% of all unique Hong Kong internet users looking for property online each month, a result that is more than four and a half times better than our nearest competitor.

Since our establishment in 1999, GoHome’s purpose is to provide objective, up-to-date and useful information and services for home seekers and to provide a cost effective marketing channel for agencies and property owners to attract potential buyers and renters. In September 2001, GoHome merged with House18 to form the largest one-stop property and home related portal in Hong Kong. GoHome is now part of the iProperty.com Group.

About iProperty.com (www.iproperty.com)
The iProperty.com Group is Asia’s No. 1 online property group, with leading property websites in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and the Philippines. It is part of Australian Securities Exchange-listed IPGA Limited (www.ipgalimited.com), (ASX: IPP). In 2008, the iProperty.com Group made history by winning the highly prestigious CNBC Asia Pacific Property Awards in the “Best Property Portal” category for 4 of its websites – Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines.

iProperty.com Network:
Hong Kong: GoHome.com.hk and House18.com
Singapore: iProperty.com Singapore
Malaysia: iProperty.com Malaysia
Taiwan: VRHOUSE.com.tw
India: iProperty.com India
Philippines: iProperty.com Philippines
Events: iProperty.com EXPO
Luxury: iLuxuryasia.com

For media queries, please contact:

Clarie Cheng (Ms)                                                            
DID: +3198-1999
Email: clarie@gohome.com.hk

Annex

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