Li targets Tamar basin in battle for prime site
CHEUNG Kong (Holdings) chairman Li Ka-shing says his firm will submit a tender next month to buy one of Hong Kong's most valuable properties, Tamar basin in Central.
The winning tender is expected to shatter Hong Kong's land price records.
'We will join the bidding,' Mr Li said after his flagship Cheung Kong's annual general meeting yesterday.
The 37,458 square feet commercial site is the first former British military property to be offered for sale after Britain returned 25 military sites to Hong Kong last year.
The site will be part of the extensive Central reclamation programme now underway along the waterfront. Tenders will close on July 28, and analysts have put a price tag of $5 billion on the site.
'I personally prefer to purchase land through public auction rather than tender,' said Mr Li.
He said that selling sites through tender could avoid the negative impact on the property market that could come if bidding by developers at public auction turned out to be weaker than expected.
Mr Li did not discuss his tender in depth, saying the disclosure of the company's investment strategy would 'cause more competition'.
'The move will not dampen the group's bidding interest in the nearby property development at Central station along the new airport railway,' he said.
The bidding interest in the Tamar basin is in line with Mr Li's earlier commitment to Central office properties.
Referring to the housing sector, Mr Li said he was optimistic about sales of small to medium-sized apartments because 'the demand is huge now and after 1997'.
'There will be a lot of people coming into Hong Kong after 1997 - that will boost the demand.' His company was planning to release apartments in its Kingswood Villas development in Yuen Long and the last housing block in Bayshore Towers at Ma On Shan.
Executive director Katherine Hung would not say when the projects would be launched.
Kingswood Villas would be on public offer ahead of Bayshore Towers, she said.
Mr Li said the more than 20,000 flats to be produced from sites scheduled for sale in the Government's 1995-96 Land Sales Programme would not reduce housing prices.
Mr Li said the resulting supply, which would not be seen for two years, would be absorbed by the market.
A substantial supply would be generated from airport-related property developments that would come on to the market after three to four years, he said.
