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SCMP Reporter

CHEUNG Kong (Holdings) plans to sell its remaining Kingswood Villas flats at about $2,160 per square foot, a 25 per cent discount to the last sale in the development at the start of the year.

  Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, Cheung Kong deputy chairman, said the company was offering a lower price to make the flats more attractive to buyers and to beat the property sales slowdown seen over the past six months.

  Cheung Kong has 11 towers in the 58-tower housing development in Yuen Long remaining to be dispose of.

  Mr Li would not name a day for the upcoming sale, but Cheung Kong would be ready to start marketing within the next one or two months.

  Speaking at the annual meeting of Hongkong Electric Holdings, of which he is a director, Mr Li said he was positive about the success of the sale.

  However, some property analysts have expressed doubts.

  One recently dubbed it the proverbial 'Skoda' of Hong Kong housing, after the infamous Czechoslovakian car, because of its poor price performance.

  When Cheung Kong last marketed three towers in the development earlier this year, 672 residential units were offered at an average $2,900 per sq ft.

  The latest expected prices mark a considerable discount, but are in line with prevailing prices in the secondary market, which are the neighbourhood of $2,200 per sq ft.

  In fact, the $2,160 per sq ft quoted by Mr Li yesterday was only slightly more than the price asked for the first batch of flats in the sprawling development back in 1991.

  Kingswood Villas is the largest mass residential project coming on the market in the next few months.

  With about 2,000 to 3,000 flats in the project expected to be put on sale, Cheung Kong has been busy preparing an extensive campaign to promote it.

  The company is recruiting between 200 and 300 sales executives, specially to market the development.

  These executives will be under a new division.

  Mr Li said Cheung Kong expected to reap a $2.5 billion profit from various phases of Kingswood Villas sales this year.

  Continuous sales would account for an estimated profit of $2.66 billion next year and $1.8 billion in 1997, he said.

  The whole project is scheduled for completion in 1997.

  Analysts believe Cheung Kong chairman Li Ka-shing is keen to dispose of as much of his stock of apartments as possible to generate cash for new land.

  Franklin Lam, senior analyst with Salomon Brothers, believed that instead of delaying sales like last year Mr Li would appear to be now going for cash flow, even at the expense of sales margins.

  Cheung Kong recently managed a sell-out of the latest phase at South Horizons in Ap Lei Chau by dubbing it 'The Oasis' and by using clever marketing tactics, such as offering off-the-shelf decoration and domestic services.

  As for Laguna City in Kwun Tong, Cheung Kong's other major housing development, it had offered discounts and cut-price car-parking spaces.



Kingswood Villas to sell at discount