In the market for a luxury home? 2019 could be your year

Foreign buyers, especially from China, have already pulled back

(Credit: iStock)
(Credit: iStock)

The holiday sale season may be behind us, but those shopping for a high-end home in 2019 may have a flurry of discounts still to come.

Sellers of luxury housing in a variety of major cities will have to offer price reductions in order to get their properties off the market as supply continues to mount, Bloomberg reported.

Home prices in Hong Kong could drop as much as 10 percent in 2019, according to data from Newmark Knight Frank. Meanwhile, in London, the effects are already starting to show. The price of homes sold fell 0.7 year over year in September, according to the Office for National Statistics. Much of the slowdown there is due to its sky-high asking prices and uncertainty over Brexit.

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In the American luxury market — defined as $3,000 per square foot or higher in this case — “there’s been a clear slowdown,” Jon Woloshin of UBS Global Wealth Management told Bloomberg. In part, the report attributes that to rising interest rates and a strong dollar. The result is inventory piling up across the country.

Oversupply could be especially pronounced in New York, where an estimated 8,000 new units are expected to hit by the end of 2019, according to Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel. Out of those 8,000 units, only a quarter are expected to sell. [Bloomberg] – Natalie Hoberman