2012 best and worst property stock performers

HK property stocks rose 42.3% in 2012 but still trails China peers.

2012 was a good year for HK property stocks. And so far, at least through the first trading day of 2013, HK property stocks have continued to do well, rising 1.9% on a weighted average basis, said Nomura Research.

Taking a weighted average of 20 HK property stocks, HK property stocks rose an average of 42.3% in 2012. While they had outperformed the HS Index’s 22.9% gain, Nomura said that HK property stocks still trailed their China peers’ average 77.3% appreciation in 2012 .

Split between our traditional classifications, the landlords performed best with a 59.2% gain in 2012. Developers and REITs were largely tied with their 35.0% and 34.4% rise, respectively, in 2012. Among individual HK property stocks, the top three performers were New World Development (+92.0%), Wharf (+72.6%) and Fortune REIT (+69.4%), while Midland Holdings (-8.4%), SHKP (+19.4%) and Regal REIT (+24.0%) were the biggest laggards in 2012.