Holiday a golden opportunity to woo mainland flat buyers
Developers make most of National Day holiday, with eight home projects ready for pre-sale, the highest number in one month for seven years
Developers are stepping up project launches to capitalise on the "golden week" National Day holiday and an upswing in the primary residential market.
This year's holiday is a day longer than usual as it coincides with the Mid-Autumn Festival, and more visitors from the mainland are expected.
At least eight projects are being marketed.
Developers have also been buoyed by sales at Century Gateway in Tuen Mun and Double Cove in Ma On Shan despite the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's move to tighten requirements for second mortgages.
More than 160 units at Century Gateway were sold on the weekend, while about 30 units at Double Cove were snapped up.
"The focus has fallen on new flats recently, while the second-hand market has been lukewarm," Chris Wong, a director at Centaline Property, said.
Wong said sales of second-hand flats in the third quarter fell about 12 per cent from the previous quarter.
As of Friday, Sun Hung Kai Properties had earned more than HK$3 billion from the sale of 350 units at Century Gateway, while Henderson Land Development collected HK$4 billion from the sale of 430 units at its joint-venture Double Cove.
Eight projects comprising more than 3,300 units are ready for pre-sale this month, the highest number in a month for the past seven years, according to Midland Realty.
"Sentiment has improved a lot. It should be no problem for the market to digest 3,000 units if developers price them at reasonable levels," Sammy Po Siu-ming of Midland said.
The biggest project is the 2,580-unit Reach in Yuen Long, which is a venture between Henderson and New World Development.
The other projects include the 193-unit Graces - the third phase of Providence Bay in Tai Po, a 286-unit project in Lai Chi Kok, the 31-unit Le Chateau in Kowloon Tong, the 66-unit Kadoorie Hill in Prince Edward Road West and the 138-unit High Point in Sham Shui Po.
Victor Tin Sio-un, Sino Land's sales and leasing general manager, said more than 100 groups, including 20 from the mainland, would visit its Graces show flat during the holiday.
Po expects market attention will focus on the Reach as it is the biggest project up for sale.
Mainland buyers accounted for about 10 per cent of the sales at Century Gateway and Double Cove, Po said. "Their interest has not been deterred by the tightening of mortgage lending for non-residents since most of them are not heavily reliant on bank borrowing," he said.
