Soundwill concentrates on development and looks to partnerships
Investment company slows down on acquiring old properties to sell on and looks to strategic partnerships with other property owners
Soundwill Holdings, the investment holding company that has acquired around 100 sites in urban areas to sell on for redevelopment in the past 20 years, has slowed the pace of assembling control of old properties.
Vivian Chan Wai-ling, an executive director at Soundwill, said: "Given the difficulties of assembling scattered ownerships in old tenement buildings, we have reduced our exposure to the business since 2009."
The impact on the group's costs of the buyer's stamp duty introduced in October last year, under which non-permanent residents and corporate buyers have to pay a duty equivalent to 15 per cent of transaction prices, was still being assessed, Chan said. But she said she believed acquisition costs would increase
The group is building two "Ginza-style" redevelopments, offering round-the-clock retailing spaces that may be shared by two separate businesses, and two residential projects, Park Haven in Causeway Bay and Warren Woods in Tai Hang.
The retail projects are The Sharp, which sold out all 29 floors on its launch day earlier this month for a total of HK$1.5 billon; and Soundwill Plaza II Midtown, which achieved a monthly rent of HK$100 per square foot, the highest for restaurant tenants in Causeway Bay.
Soundwill has formed a property fund through its wholly-owned subsidiary Soundwill Asset Management and ALPS Real Estate to focus on property investments and development. The Eagle Fund's first project will be a boutique-style luxury residential project at 14-16 Mosque Street in West Mid-Levels.