HONG KONG, May 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Following the stronger than expected Q1 GDP figure published last week, inflation data for April is released by the Census and Statistics Department on Monday 23rd. Prices accelerated at an annual rate of 4.6% in March, up from 3.7% in February and are now at the highest level since July 2008. Meanwhile, the Q1 RICS Global Commercial Property Survey suggests sentiment towards real estate in Hong Kong remains strongly positive. Property professionals in the region indicated that tenant demand is bullish and continuing to underpin the rise in rental expectations; 81% more respondents indicated they expect rents to rise rather than fall next quarter.
US housing market moving sideways
The coming week sees the release of key residential property data; new homes sales (April) are published on Tuesday 24th followed by the FHFA house price index (Q1 2011) the next day. New home sales increased in March by 11% to an annual rate of 300,000, continuing the sideways trend of home sales over the past 6 months (they have averaged 300,000 over the past half year which is roughly 50% below the long run average).
Property sector stronger in faster growing European economies
The coming week sees a raft of business sentiment surveys released in the euro area. Most notably, flash estimates for the purchasing manager indices in Germany, France and Italy on Monday 23rd will be followed by the IFO and INSEE reports on Tuesday 24th. Finally, on Friday 27th, the European Commission will update its monthly sentiment numbers.
UK property lending remains subdued as construction workloads edge up
The second release for Q1 UK GDP is due to be published on Wednesday 25th. The first estimate suggested that the economy had grown by 0.5%, just about making good the contraction in the final three months of the last year. Significantly, a suggested 4.7% drop in construction output in the early part of 2011 played an important role in limiting the extent of the rebound in the headline growth number.
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