Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), the first local developer to offer flats on the Internet, sold a 610 square-foot unit in Tsing Yi through its e-auctioning service provider for $2.27 million. The on-line auction, held on SHKP subsidiary, Red-dots, attracted 173 bids from 45 bidders before it closed yesterday. The opening bid for the two-bedroom unit at Grand Horizon with a sea view was $880,000 and each bid increment was $5,000. The selling price, representing $3,721 per square foot, is about 12 per cent lower than SHKP's $2.6 million listed price. Stephen Tung Yiu-kwan, marketing director of SHKP marketing arm Sun Hung Kai Real Estate Agency, said SHKP was the first developer to sell a flat through the Internet and the price achieved was about 10 per cent lower than the secondary market. SHKP would consider using this medium after seeing a satisfactory result, but there was no detailed plan at the moment, he said. A Red-dots spokesman said the bid deadline had been postponed to 5.40pm from the original 5pm after fierce bidding near closing time. SHKP shares rose 6.22 per cent, or $3.50, to close at $59.75 each yesterday on news that SHKP and Microsoft Hong Kong were to announce a strategic alliance on Thursday. Meanwhile, property agents said an SHKP joint venture, the Royal Peninsula project in Hunghom, had received a slow response yesterday when registration of buyers began. The said most prospective buyers preferred to submit their applications on Thursday, the last registration day. Agents said the development, a joint venture with Henderson Land Development, earlier had registered about 600 prospective buyers for internal sale.
