Commercial and residential property sales languished in Hong Kong as the vacancy rate in four core shopping areas increased and weekend sales of second-hand homes remained lackluster.

The number of shop sales in April dipped 31.2 percent monthly to 377 while the total value of deals fell 31.9 percent to HK$45.67 million, a property agency said.

At the same time, the vacancy rate in the four core areas shot up last month compared to March.

Central reported the highest vacancy rate of 13.21 percent last month, up by 0.1 percentage points monthly. The proportion of empty shops in Tsim Sha Tsui rose 0.06 percentage points to 11.53 percent, and that in Wan Chai grew 0.03 percentage points to 13.06 percent. Mong Kok recorded a 0.02 percentage point climb to 9.12 percent in April.

Causeway Bay was an exception, with the vacancy rate staying flat at 6.34 percent, but the reading was 0.94 percentage points higher than the same month last year.

The property agency said shop transactions fell because the merchants were focused on the long Easter break and had put their buying plans on hold.

Despite the fall in the number of transactions and higher vacancy rates, the property agency said market sentiment has greatly improved compared with last year and it expects shop deals will rebound in the second half.