Jones Lang LaSalle announced today a review and outlook of the Hong Kong real estate market in the first half of this year, indicating that both the commercial property investment and residential markets in Hong Kong are facing the double impact of tightening bank mortgage approvals and high interest rates, and that both commercial and residential prices will continue to fall in the next six months. Nicholas Wong, chairman of JLL Hong Kong, said that the prices of small-to-medium-sized residential properties in Hong Kong in the second half of the year are expected to fall by 10%, while luxury home prices will fall by 5% to 10% due to the increase of new supply, and that overall property prices will fall by more than 30% in the whole year. He believes that the current Hong Kong property market can be compared with the market in 1997, and if the property market really falls by 30% for the whole year, it is estimated that the number of bankruptcies will exceed 100,000. Wong added that property prices have fallen continuously for three years since September 2021, and that since the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the property market has never experienced such a downturn. He suggested that the government should take measures to rescue the market, including setting up a dedicated group to assess the risk level of the property market and formulate measures to reduce the risk; providing low-interest loans to first-time homebuyers; and providing additional property incentives for qualified talents, including including residential properties in the scope of the new capital investment immigration plan.