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Joseph Lo

The market for luxury and near-luxury properties in Sha Tin has been investor rather than end-user dominated, according to property agents.

 Calvin Ieong Chan-chong, Ricacorp Properties' area manager, said at least 10 per cent of recent buyers at the Royal Ascot development, next to the KCR station in Fotan, were short-term investors.

 Another 30 per cent were medium and long-term investors, he said.

 Mr Ieong said confirmor-type speculators were still present in the Royal Ascot market, although they were rare as the 'risk of losing money was too high'.

 'Not too many of them are successful,' he said.

 Ricacorp sold a confirmor-held 1,206 square feet unit last week for about $11.3 million, Mr Ieong said.

 'The speculator bought it for about $10.8 million late in July, so the profit was not very substantial.'  Samuel Lai Wai-Keung, Midland Realty's Sha Tin and Tai Po senior regional manager, said the dearth of confirmors was due to sellers unwillingness to agree to sales contracts with completion dates two or three months later.

 'Some of the confirmors are changing their strategy towards a more medium-term view for now,' he said.

 Transaction prices at Royal Ascot have been from $9,800 per sq ft for units with mountain-views to about $12,000 per sq ft for units with a racecourse view.

 Mr Ieong said there were about 15 to 20 transactions in the first 10 days of this month, up 30 per cent from last month.

 A recent sale at Royal Ascot for a high-level 1,620 sq ft unit overlooking the racecourse sold for a bargain $19.2 million last week, Mr Ieong said.

 'The owner was willing to make a big cut to the $20 million-plus asking price to sell his flat,' he said.

 Rentals at Royal Ascot are about $23 per sq ft, per month.

 The split between rental transactions and sales transactions was about three rentals for every seven sales, Mr Ieong said, adding that 'almost every unit on the market at Royal Ascot can be either bought or rented as the owners were typically long and medium-term investors'.

 About 500 units are for sale at Royal Ascot. The project is a Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) joint-venture with the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp, comprising about 2,500 units in 10 blocks.

 The latest sale of new flats in Royal Ascot was in June, when SHKP released 139 units for about $10,000 per sq ft.

 In August, SHKP sold most of its 1,900 car parking spaces for about $880,000 each, a record price for car spaces in the New Territories. Rentals are about $3,500 per month.

 Mr Ieong said car spaces were averaging about $300,000 elsewhere in similar developments in Sha Tin and that rentals were about $2,000 per month.

 Mr Lai said investors made up such a big percentage of the market because end-user interest in Sha Tin was in the $5 million range.

 'The top-end luxury hasn't been the focus of attention lately, as a lot of interest has been in near-luxury flats and cheaper large units from people looking to upgrade their flats,' he said.



Investors dominate luxury arena