HK Land $1.7b bid wins site after long campaign
Hongkong Land Holdings has succeeded in its five-year campaign to acquire 36-year-old Lai Sing Court on Tai Hang Road with a $1.71 billion bid at a public auction.
The acquisition yesterday of the twin-tower development marked the first time a developer had used a compulsory sale ordinance to force an auction of a residential site.
Since 2000, Hongkong Land had signed agreements with the owners of 171 of the 176 units to sell their properties. With only five units holding out, the company was able to apply to the government under the Land (Compulsory Sale for Redevelopment) Ordinance enacted in 1998 to order a public auction.
The ordinance allows property owners holding more than 90 per cent of a building to apply to the Lands Tribunal for an order compelling the sale of all properties within the building.
'We are very happy, after going through such a long procedure. But there's still quite a long way to go,' Hongkong Land residential property executive director Robert Wong Yau-chung said.
To reach agreement with the Lai Sing Court owners, Hongkong Land had offered each of them a unit in the new project that is expected to comprise two 50-storey towers, and compensation of $400,000.
Sino Land was among the three developers which turned up for yesterday's auction but did not take part in the bidding. Chairman Robert Ng Chee Siong said: 'We only come here to learn.'
The only other bidder, who would not disclose the identity of the company she represented, started a bidding war that started from the bottom price of $1.209 billion and lasted over 40 minutes.
The winning bid of $1.7 billion translates into an accommodation value of $5,551 per square foot according to a maximum gross floor area for the redevelopment of 308,000 sq ft. This compares with the latest secondary transaction last month of a 1,200 sq ft unit in Lai Sing Court at $5,500 per square foot.
Market experts said the anonymous bidder was probably from Cheung Kong (Holdings), which was due to launch the Legend, a luxury property redeveloped from the former Tiger Balm Garden in Tai Hang, in the next few months.
Cheung Kong refused to comment.
Meanwhile, the Land Tribunal has approved Swire Properties' application for resumption procedures under the compulsory sale ordinance for a 10-block residential project in Seymour Road, in which the developer has already acquired 97 per cent of the property.
The 23,000 sq ft site is expected to be developed into a 162-unit residential project.
