Luxury residential market hushed in 1Q15

Transaction volumes were low.

The luxury residential market was relatively quiet in the first quarter of 2015, in particular over the Chinese New Year holiday.

According to a research note from Savills, many tenants and landlords were out of town in the quarter and transaction volumes were low.

Demand for apartments has been stable and there has been no increase in demand in the past quarter.

Here's more from Savills:

On the supply side, there has been a slight tightening in the market, which has supported rents for luxury apartments in the first quarter which rose by 2%.

Townhouse rents have adjusted downward by about 30% since their peak in 2011 to the end of 2014.

Whilst this has attracted some new tenants to the townhouse market, few transactions have been reported and leasing volumes in the townhouse market remain thin. Townhouse rents were stable in Q1/2015.

Landlords have been very flexible in their leasing arrangements as they are now looking for stable occupancy rather than a large rental increment.

As a result, vacancies have been filling up quickly over the past year and availability in the market is tightening.