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Josephine Ma

HUTCHISON Whampoa Property is cutting 15 per cent from flat prices in the fourth stage of South Horizons at Aberdeen.

  While the market was expecting about $4,500 per square foot for the Oasis, Hutchison Whampoa yesterday set the average at $4,332 for the first 120 units on the market.

  For a lump-sum payment it was down to $4,200 and a furnished package is up to $4,532.

  Hutchison Whampoa managing director K S Tso said the prices were set to stimulate the market and denied the company lacked confidence in the property sector.

  He said the company might put more units on the market, depending on response to registration from next Monday to Wednesday.

   Hutchison Whampoa Property holds a stake of 50 per cent of the project, Cheung Kong holds 30 per cent, and and Hongkong Electric 20 per cent.

  The Oasis has seven blocks with about 1,770 units; two, three and four-bedroom flats range from 645 square feet to 950 square feet are priced from $3,397 per sq ft.

  The developer has offered packages with furnishing, room services and rental services, to be organised by Hutchison International Hotel.

  The project, marked for public sale on March 25, attracted attention not only because it was one of the largest this year, but was a market barometer after a robust sale of Royal Ascot last week. Cheung Kong deputy chairman Victor Li said he decided to offer the lowest price options after considering a range of prices up to $4,700 per sq ft.

  'I hope it [the project] can lead the property market when it starts to revive . . . I think there is a large potential of purchasing power after a few quiet months,' he said.

   He said the prices and the number of flats to be sold in the next batch had yet to be decided.

   Banks including Hongkong Bank, Hang Seng Bank, Bank of East Asia, Bank of China, Standard Chartered and Dao Heng Bank have agreed to offer mortgages of up to 70 per cent. Agents believed the project would receive a feverish response under the attractive pricing.

  Midland Realty senior sales manager Vincent Chan said: 'The prices are even lower than the second-hand market for the first three phases.

  'The average prices for those flats are above $5,000 per square foot.'  He believed the developer wanted to sell all the units as soon as possible because the project was scheduled for occupancy in July.

  'The developer could not find a good time to push the units to the market and had to wait until now,' he said.

  'These units would have been sold out by this time during the peak of the property market.'   He said the developer had re-packaged the flats as serviced apartments because the views were not as good as the first three phases.

   Centaline Properties' Island South branch supervisor Toson Chui said the average price of flats with better views should have been $4,500 - but it had been dragged down by the 'extremely low' prices for those with a cemetery view.

  Other developers who have tried offering cut-price flats in recent weeks have scored great success. More than 3,500 people registered for the initial 120 units released in Sun Hung Kai Properties' Royal Ascot development in Sha Tin, where luxury apartments were offered at $4,540 per sq ft for buyers who paid a lump-sum.

  This was significantly lower than the asking prices for developments of a similar quality in the New Territories. About 7,000 people signed up to apply for the initial 100 apartments offered by the Land Development Corporation in its Ko Nga Court development near Central offered at an average $3,480 per sq ft.

  Sino Land easily sold out two batches of units released at its Avon Park and Serenity Court II developments.



Hutchison trims 15pc from flats