RESIDENTIAL flat sales increased by 33.6 per cent in March from February, as three major developments came on stream to help bring total sale and purchase agreements to 11,678.
The Registrar-General, in Land Registry figures released yesterday, said the total value of the agreements was $23.87 billion - a rise of 29.7 per cent on the previous March.
The three developments which triggered the sharp increase were Saddle Ridge Garden and Sunshine City, in Ma On Shan, and Park View Garden in Sha Tin.
Sector specialists said Saddle Ridge Garden was developed under the Government's private sector participation scheme, while Park View Garden and Sunshine City were both developed by Henderson Land.
The February home market was also buoyant, with 8,739 sale and purchase agreements registered, more than double January's total.
The long-running Sino-British row on Hongkong's political reforms was blamed for dampening the local residential market in January, when only 4,250 sales and purchase agreements were registered.
Government figures for March show there were six building mortgages and 9,272 other mortgages registered, compared with 10 and 11,509, respectively, in the same month last year.