1 Land bids show developers are bullish
Yvonne Liu, SCMP 16 October 2007
The Aberdeen site that fetched HK$5.71 billion at auction.
Hong Kong's buoyant real estate market shows no signs of cooling, with two sites selling for more than double their opening bids at yesterday's land auction.
Sino Land was the successful bidder on both sites - in Aberdeen and on Lantau Island - paying a total of HK$6.19 billion. Market expectations were HK$4.7 billion.
With Hong Kong's stock market soaring and bullish predictions for economic growth next year, developers are boosting their land banks on expectations property prices will continue to climb. The site in Aberdeen sold for HK$5.71 billion, and the Lantau site for HK$482 million.
"The price of the Aberdeen site hit the highest for Hong Kong Island since 1996, except for property in Island South and The Peak," said Alnwick Chan Chi-hing, executive director at Knight Frank.
The price paid for the Lantau site was a record for the area.
Jason Ng Ka-tung, sales director at Midland Realty, said the auction result had already prompted homeowners on Hong Kong Island to raise their asking prices.
At the three-year-old Sham Wan Towers, the newest housing development in Aberdeen, about 30 per cent of flat owners selling their properties had raised their asking prices by between 10 per cent and 20 per cent yesterday. However, Savills Valuation and Professional Services managing director Charles Chan Chiu-kwok said the auction would have a limited long-term impact on the market.
"It will encourage flat owners in the area to raise their asking price in the short term," Mr Chan said. "But it may not encourage home seekers to pay aggressively for units."
The waterfront site in Aberdeen attracted bids from some of the city's heavyweight property firms, including New World Development, Henderson Land, Kerry Properties, Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Chinese Estates. Swire Properties, which seldom participates in land auctions, also bid. The winning bidder can build several towers up to 30 storeys high, containing 750 flats, on the 68,922 sq ft site. Sino Land teamed up with Nan Fung Development and K Wah International to win the site and plans to spend HK$1.3 billion building a luxury development.
Sino Land acquired a 178,542 sq ft site in Cheung Sha, south Lantau, for HK$6,749 per sq ft of floor area, a record price for the area. The developer plans to build two- and three-storey houses of between 4,000 and 5,000 sq ft on the site.
2 Priority on harbour in move to cut density
Review will first focus on crammed districts
Olga Wong, SCMP 16 October 2007
The government will give priority to sites along the harbour in its upcoming review of building density, the development chief said yesterday.
Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor also reassured lawmakers that reducing development density above Nam Cheong and Yuen Long stations would have no cost implications for the railway company to be formed from the merger of rail operationsof the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation and the MTR Corporation.
Discussing the chief executive's policy initiatives in a Legco meeting yesterday, the secretary for development said the government would soon review the density of the whole city, as set out by Donald Tsang Yam-kuen in his policy address last week.
Mr Tsang said on Wednesday the government would review the outline zoning plans of various districts and, where justified, revise planning parameters to lower the development density.
He also said the government would review the approved property development projects above the Nam Cheong and Yuen Long stations on the West Rail line, with a view to lowering their development densities.
Mrs Lam said more than half of Hong Kong's 108 outline zoning plans did not have planning parameters specifying heights, plot ratios and maximum gross floor areas - key components in controlling density.
She said priority should be given in the review to sites along the harbour and areas that already have a high density.
But the minister said no target date or timetable had been set to complete the review, which had already been started - for example, in North Point.
In the case of the planned property development at Yuen Long station, Mrs Lam said the project had been approved by the Town Planning Board in early 2005. Now that Mr Tsang had announced a cut in density at the station, the government would review the development plan with the MTR Corp.
The district council would also be consulted and the government would have to seek approval from the Town Planning Board.
"The review will reduce government revenue, but the railway company will not suffer financially since it only acts as a government agent in the development."
Mrs Lam also stressed that new-development density in the northern New Territories would remain low to maintain the area's rural character.
Three years ago the government listed 12 sites in the New Territories with high conservation value for limited development and invited proposals from the private sector, but no project has been started.
Mrs Lam said her bureau would work with the Environment Bureau to revitalise as soon as possible the proposal for developing the sites under public-private partnership.
