Ricacorp: Hong Kong's private residential completions in July at 186 units, down 95% month-on-month

Ricacorp Properties' Head of Research, Chan Hoi-chiu, said that the pace of private residential construction starts has remained persistently slow. According to the latest data released by the Buildings Department today, in July 2026 there was one private residential project in Hong Kong with a total of 1 unit commencing construction (based on construction start notices for superstructure works received by the Buildings Department), a decrease of more than 99% compared with 344 units in June, marking the lowest for a single month in nearly five months. As for the cumulative number of private residential construction starts in the first seven months of this year, it totaled 2,668 units, a decrease of 47% compared with 5,029 units in the same period last year, hitting a 16-year low for the same period. Among them, the project that commenced construction in July was Sai Kung Man Sau San Tsuen (LOT1179 DD215) (1 unit). In addition, regarding private residential completions, according to the latest monthly report released by the Buildings Department today, in July 2026 there were two projects in Hong Kong with a total of 186 private residential units completed (based on the number of buildings for which the Buildings Department issued occupation permits), a decrease of 95% compared with 3,532 units in June. As for the cumulative number of private residential completions in the first seven months of this year, it totaled 8,100 units, a decrease of 31% compared with 11,759 units in the same period last year, the lowest for the same period in three years. According to the data, two private residential projects were officially completed in Hong Kong in July. The larger one was 138 Yee Kuk Street in Sham Shui Po, involving 140 units; Kowloon Tong Bo Fung (46 units) also completed during the period. By district, in the first half of this year, the New Territories recorded a total of 9 completed projects involving 5,045 units, accounting for about 62.3% of the overall total; Hong Kong Island recorded 12 completed projects involving 1,808 units, accounting for about 22.3% of the overall private residential completions in the same period; Kowloon recorded 13 completed projects involving 1,247 units, accounting for nearly 15.4% of the overall private residential completions. Chan Hoi-chiu pointed out that private residential completions in the first seven months of this year reached about 47.7% of the Rating and Valuation Department's full-year forecast of 16,975 units. It is expected that many large projects will successively obtain occupation permits during the year, including Sierra Sea Phase 2B in Tai Po (775 units), The Pavilia Bay in Tsuen Wan (462 units), and State Theatre in North Point (388 units), among others. Together with other small and medium-sized projects, it is preliminarily estimated that completions this year will be at a level of about 17,000 units.