Macau's housing market shows signs of improvement

Global Property Guide News Team | January 06, 2021

House prices were up slightly by 0.55% y-o-y in Q3 2020

Macau’s housing market shows signs of improvement, despite its continued economic slump. The average transaction price of residential units rose slightly by 0.55% during the year to Q3 2020, a sharp improvement from the previous year’s 3.66% fall. Quarter-on-quarter, house prices increased 1.85% during the latest quarter.

Macau’s housing market grew strongly in 2017 and 2018, supported by robust economic growth and massive infrastructure investments. The economy was estimated to have expanded by 4.7% in 2018, down from a spectacular 9.1% in 2017, but a sharp turnaround from y-o-y declines of 0.9% in 2016, 21.6% in 2015, and 1.2% in 2014.

  • The 200,000 sq. m. Taipa maritime terminal began operations in June 2017, increasing travel within Macau and its neighbouring cities, and providing direct connections to the planned light rail transit system.
  • Construction of the Gongbei tunnel, the only link connecting Zhuhai with the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, started in April 2017. The bridge is scheduled to open this year.
  • The Shenzhen-Zhongshan tunnel, a key infrastructure development in the Greater Pearl River Delta, is also under construction. The project, scheduled for completion in 2020, will reduce the average travel time between Shenzhen and Zhongshan from two hours to less than 30 minutes.
  • Beijing has also committed to a comprehensive Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Bay Area development plan to increase connectivity, trade and investment between the three regions.

Rents, rental yields: no yields data available for Macau.

Recent news. COVID-19 has been a major blow adversely impacting Macau’s gaming, tourism, and property sectors. The IMF expects Macau’s economy to shrink by 52.3% this year.  Macau’s economy contracted by a massive 63.8% in Q3 2020 from a year earlier, following annual declines of 68% in Q2 2020, and 48.1% in Q1 2020, according to Macau’s Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).  The economy was already declining last year, with GDP falling by 5.3% in Q4, 1.3% in Q3, 1.5% in Q2 and 2.1% in Q1.