Focus of public land auctions to fall on small sites
An attempt to avoid adding too much residential supply is behind the move
Small and medium-sized sites will be the focus of the public land sales programme this year as the government attempts to avoid adding too much supply to a reawakening property market.
This is one of the four principles the government has outlined for public land sales this year.
The other three are: low-density residential developments will be given emphasis, no sales will be scheduled for areas where oversupply is a problem and a variety of 'other types' of land will be put up for sale, which developers expect to include sites for mass housing and offices.
The Housing, Planning and Lands Bureau is drawing up a land sales programme under its application list system, which resumes this month following a 13-month freeze on land auctions.
Under the system, developers submit bids for land on the list. If the reserve price is met, the property is then put up for auction.
In its policy agenda for the year, the bureau said the application list would be drawn up on the basis of the four principles.
'We only put in an appropriate number of sites, most of which are small and medium in terms of land size and development ratio, in order to avoid any sudden upsurge in the supply of residential flats,' the bureau said.
It also added a number of quality sites for low-density residential development to allow property companies to take advantage of the increased demand at the high end of the market.
Sites tipped to be on the application list include the 0.73-hectare plot of land at 12 Mount Kellett Road on the Peak, for which the government could fetch up to $400 million.
Another site is the 0.59-hectare property at Ede Road in Kowloon Tong. Real estate agents estimated that the site could be worth between $420 million and $570 million.
Wharf (Holdings) assistant director Ricky Wong Kwong-yiu welcomed the government's promise not to release land in areas suffering from oversupply.
'It is good to see that the government kept an eye on the supply side while drawing up the application list,' Mr Wong said.
Property consultants said the four principles reiterated the government's hopes to see a healthy market develop through regulated land supply.
SK Pang Surveyors managing director Pang Siu-kee said the move to put a variety of sites up for sale would cater for both big and small developers.
'As a government, it should not only take care of the big players, but should also look after all developers' interests,' he said.
New World Development managing director Henry Cheng Kar-shun said the company was interested in bidding for government land when it came up for sale this year.
But the developer would show a low interest in sites in districts facing excessive supply, he said.
Property stocks such as Sun Hung Kai Properties and Cheung Kong (Holdings) dropped yesterday after Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's policy address on Wednesday failed to offer any measures to prop up the sector.
