Hongkongers to keep forfeiting flat deposits at high rate, agents forecast

A report from property agency Centaline showed that 449 buyers of first-hand property forfeited their deposits last year, a 75 per cent increase from a year earlier. The final quarter saw 104 such cases, just short of triple the 40 cases in the third quarter. The agency did not report the value of the forfeited deposits, but the typical initial deposit is HK$100,000 (US$12,844), according to market sources.

The number of default cases will stay high in the short-term, agents said.

“As the market will be busy after Lunar New Year, and developers will be offering discounts, we expect the number of defaults on new property units to remain high,” said Yeung Ming-yee, a senior associate director at Centaline. “There will be around 100 such cases in the first quarter of 2025.”

Forfeits indicate either that buyers are not able to move forward with their purchases, or that they expect to find significantly better deals.