A report from Bloomberg on Hong Kong. "Amid all the doom and gloom in Hong Kong’s housing market, there appeared to be a silver lining, when a developer sold all 488 apartments on offer in a single day. Sino Land Co Ltd. reported the sellout in Kowloon East on Thursday. But the average price of HK$17,500 ($2,241) per square foot was about 20 percent below recent prices for projects in the area, according to Bloomberg Intelligence."

"Country Garden Holdings Co Ltd. sold just 21 of 110 units on offer at a New Territories project since sales started in late November, despite discounts. Another project, by different developers and featuring some of the city’s smallest apartments, sold only two of 73 units last week."

"Developers could be poised for a challenging year, with more than 30,000 new units going on sale in 2019, the newspaper Oriental Daily estimated, citing its own data. That’s more than double the number sold this year."

From Mingtiandi on Hong Kong. "Distressed mainland conglomerate HNA Group has reportedly taken a big loss on properties it owned in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay district, selling them off this past week for HK$70 million less than what it paid for them just last year."

"The airline took a 21 percent loss of HK$70 million on its cut-rate sale of the homes at the Yoo Residence project, after paying HK$330 million for the package last December. The 5,193 square foot (482 square metre) duplex had set the record for priciest home in Causeway Bay at the time, when HNA purchased it for an average price of HK$63,000 per square foot."

"The Causeway Bay haircut follows just one month after HNA sold two retail spaces in the same at a HK$33.5 million loss, taking its total losses to over HK$100 million on the combined properties, or the equivalent of about 30 percent of its original investment."

From Shine on China. "Weekly sales of new homes fell below the 100,000-square-meter threshold again in Shanghai as weakness extended for another week, according to the latest market data. 'Only the Pudong New Area managed to register more than 10,000 square meters of sales while several downtown districts suffered zero sales again as momentum among buyers continued to fall,' said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior research manager."

"On the supply side, three developments, or 111,000 square meters of new homes in total, were released to the market, a surge of 262 percent from the previous seven-day session."

From News.com.au on Australia. "Across the country, there are scores of brand new, spacious, perfect family homes sitting vacant — because nobody wants to buy them. For example, there are a slew of homes in the newly established suburb of Moncrieff in the Gungahlin district of Canberra which have been languishing without buyers for months — and even years — on end."

"The four-bedroom home pictured below, for example, is described as 'perfection' and a 'dream home' and is listed for $755,000 — yet has been on the market since July 2017. And it is far from unique, with houses in new estates across Australia’s states and territories struggling to sell in the current market."

From Toronto Storeys in Canada. "The size and sheer volume of GTA condo cancellations in 2018 sent shockwaves through the industry and left thousands of purchasers stunned and upset. According to condo analytics firm Urbanation, from January 1 to mid-December, 2018, 4,202 units  (or 12 buildings across nine developments) were cancelled."

"That’s staggering, considering that in 2017 there were 1,678 cancelled units in eight buildings and just 379 cancelled units across three buildings in 2016."

"'All projects that cancelled in the last year had more than 80 per cent of the units sold,' says Pauline Lierman, Urbanation’s director of market research. 'The biggest factors are cost and financing.'"

"Icona, with its 51 and 53-storey towers, launched in February 2017. The condo sold out quickly but was cancelled in September. The Gupta Group also cited an inability to obtain satisfactory financing as the reason for their project’s termination."

From The Guardian in the UK. "Asking prices for homes coming on to the market in the UK are nearly £10,000 lower than they were in October, as the property market headed for its worst annual performance in almost a decade."

"Miles Shipside, a Rightmove director and housing market analyst, said there was more to the drop in asking prices than the usual festive slowdown in buyer interest. He said: 'It’s usual for new-to-the-market sellers to price lower in the run-up to Christmas to tempt distracted buyers, so we should not read too much into the mere fact of two consecutive monthly falls.'"

"'However, these falls have been larger than usual, making this the largest fall over two months for six years, showing that there are more than just seasonal forces at play.'"