From the first quarter of 2008, the Statistics and Census Service will release information on the Private Sector Construction and Real Estate Transaction in one publication, to facilitate data users in getting both statistics simultaneously. In addition, with the objective to enhance the accuracy of the transaction prices of building units, the survey coverage has been extended to include the building units purchased and sold under Intermediate Transfer of Title (payment of 0.5% of stamp duty) and those that have been scheduled for re-evaluation; meanwhile, respective data for 2007 has been re-calculated accordingly. In the first quarter of 2008, the construction of 12 new buildings, with a gross floor area totalling 104,435 m², has been started. Upon completion, these buildings will provide 282 units, 467 and 346 parking space respectively for cars and for motorcycles. Meanwhile, a total of 5 buildings and the gross floor area of 89,186 m² have been completed, altogether providing 26 units, 264 parking space for cars and 64 parking space for motorcycles. There were 3,189 cases of real estate sale and purchase contracts made in the first quarter of 2008, comprising 4,364 units that amounted to MOP4.24 billion, down by 3.4% and 37.6% respectively over the preceding quarter. Moreover, the total value of mortgage loans amounted to MOP23.87 billion, which soared notably by 1.6 times compared with the preceding quarter. In the first quarter of 2008, a total of 6,518 building units, amounting to MOP12.72 billion, were purchased and sold with stamp duty paid to the Finance Service Bureau, down by 7.3% and 4.2% respectively over the preceding quarter. Besides, 2,323 units (MOP8.4 billion) were purchased and sold under Intermediate Transfer of Title. The majority (4,563 units valued at MOP10.99 billion) of these transactions were residential units that accounted for 70.0% of the total number of building units. Among these residential units, 3,167 units were situated at the Macao Peninsula, 1,380 at Taipa Island and 16 at Coloane Island. Analyzed by the transaction price, 797 residential units (17.5% of the total) were purchased and sold for more than MOP4,000,000; 1,149 units (25.2%) were in the range of MOP2,000,000 to MOP4,000,000; 715 units (15.7%) were in the range of MOP1,000,000 to MOP2,000,000; and 1,902 units (41.7%) were under MOP1,000,000. In the first quarter of 2008, the average transaction price of the overall residential unit amounted to MOP24,583 per square meter of usable area, up slightly by 0.1% over the previous quarter. The average transaction price of residential unit in the Macao Peninsula rose by 6.0% to MOP20,532 per square meter, but the average price of that in Taipa Island went down by 6.8% to MOP33,058 per square meter. Meanwhile, the average transaction price of the industrial units and office amounted to MOP5,715 and MOP21,665 per square meter of usable area, down by 14.7% and 8.2% over the fourth quarter of 2007.
