MAJOR developers went on a bull run yesterday to compete for a prime residential site in Kowloon which fetched a higher-than-expected price of $1.33 billion at the Government's last auction this financial year.
Henderson Land Development teamed up with Hong Kong & China Gas and the Bank of East Asia to buy the 168,392-square-foot site in King's Park Rise after defeating five competitors including Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Sino Land Co.
The sale at an accommodation value of $5,516 per square foot made the site the most valuable lot of Crown land sold this fiscal year in terms of average price.
With the sale of two residential sites in Yuen Long and Sai Kung, the auction brought in a total of $1.825 billion.
This took the total revenue from auctions to nearly $15.66 billion for the year, which compared with the last financial year's total of about $15.85 billion.
This is the first time in recent years that the Government has recorded a decrease in land auction revenues, which could be caused by the property market's downturn and the withdrawal of sites this year.
