Homebuyers and investors are bargain-hunting for flats in Tuen Mun, where prices have lagged the rest of Hong Kong for more than a decade.
The buyers are betting that prices in the area are due to play catch-up as a result of the coming launch of a big project at Tuen Mun station and the overall improvement under way in infrastructure in the area, agents say.
Owners, however, have begun increasing their prices in response to the fresh demand, or in some cases have withdrawn their flats until they can achieve even higher prices.
The improved market sentiment follows an announcement last week from developer Sun Hung Kai Properties that it hoped to achieve selling prices of HK$10,000 per square foot at its new 1,075-flat project, Century Gateway, at Tuen Mun station. Flats range in size from 500 to 3,000 sq ft.
The flats are expected to be available for occupation in the third quarter of 2013 and will probably be launched for sale next month.
SHKP's indicative price is double the average price of about HK$5,000 per sq ft fetched recently in sales on major housing estates in the area.
Although a 925 sq ft flat at Chelsea Heights changed hands for a record HK$6,086 per sq ft, or HK$5.63 million, in Tuen Mun recently, average prices in the area were still some 10 per cent below the peak levels reached in 1997 before the collapse of the property market in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, said Gary Siu Ka-wai, senior sales manager at Many Wells Property Agency.