Home sales totaled HK$22.4 billion (US$2.88 billion) last month, 109.6 percent higher than a year earlier. Sales rose 14.9 percent from November.

The number of units changing hands was 7,255, 63.9 percent more than in December 2005 and up 2.1 percent from November 2006, Bloomberg News reported.

A mortgage battle among Hong Kong banks, the rise in consumer confidence and a shortage of new apartments may send residential prices soaring more than 50 percent by the end of 2007, UBS AG analyst Eric Wong said in November.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)