Uncertain outlook drags on luxury flat site price
Firm wins bidding for upmarket development with offer at low end of expectations as leap in stamp duty makes property firms pessimistic
A luxury residential site in Ho Man Tin was sold at the lower end of market expectations yesterday, suggesting developers have turned conservative in acquiring sites for high-end homes, given the uncertain outlook for the market.
Wheelock Properties outbid 11 developers to win the 83,033 square foot site for HK$3.83 billion, or HK$9,875 per square foot. Surveyors had estimated it would fetch between HK$3.8 billion and HK$4.38 billion.
The price per square foot was 3.5 per cent less than that of a nearby site sold to Kerry Properties in March.
Shih Wing-ching, the founder of Centaline Property Agency, expressing the pessimism felt among many in the sector, said yesterday many property brokers were likely to face bankruptcy in the wake of recent government measures, including a doubling of stamp duty.
"Our commission income has dropped 60 per cent. We hope the government could revise the measures," Shih said.
However, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying wrote in his blog yesterday the government would not relax the measures, as the supply of new land and housing had yet to rise significantly.
Vincent Cheung Kiu-cho, a national director for greater China at the consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, said: "Recent speeches by the government have made developers believe the cooling measures would not be withdrawn in the short term.