As a property investor it is important to gather and analyse objective data on the property market and the overall macro-economy. Macro-economic data is widely available in the form of interest rates, inflation or CPI rates and GDP growth rates. When looking at the property market, we can make use of a property index to follow the general trend in property prices.

Fortunately, the boffins at The University of Hong Kong have constructed a series of property indices for Hong Kong known as The University of Hong Kong Real Estate Index Series or HKU-REIS. The set comprises a composite index called All Residential Price index (HKU-ARPI) and the three constituent indices known as Hong Kong Island Residential Price Index (HKU-HRPI), Kowloon Residential Price Index (HKU-KRPI) and New Territories Residential Price Index (HKU-NRPI).

The University has made available for download the Index construction method (pdf) and it shows which property transactions are included and the rationale behind the methods used.

Downloading the data into a spreadsheet it is interesting to note the reaction of property prices to major events in Hong Kong’s recent history including the Handover, the Asian Financial Crisis and SARS.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 and is filed under Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.