Bargain Yuen Long flats snapped up
Developers offer discounts of up to 20pc to attract buyers
The first 16 units to be sold at a Yuen Long residential project yesterday were priced from 15 to 20 per cent below the market value, with the developers hoping buying interest would be rekindled by the easing of the Sars crisis.
The general sales manager of joint developer Henderson Land Development, Donald Cheung Ping-keung, said the 16 units at the La Pradera project were priced at an average $1,686 per square foot.
La Pradera, the completed 425-unit phase-three development of Sereno Verde, went on sale yesterday afternoon and agents said 24 units were sold by 10pm. Initial sales appeared to be slow, which agents said could be due to yesterday being a working day. They expected sales to pick up today.
Barbara Ho, sales and marketing manager of Henderson's partner in the project, New World Development, said La Pradera was the first new project to go on sale after the Sars outbreak, so the price was made particularly attractive.
'Adopting discount pricing for the first batch of units does not mean we are pessimistic. Our sale response will set a barometer for upcoming releases of other developers' projects,' she said.
Ms Ho said that with the Sars situation easing and people returning to the property market, the developers believed it was the right time to release La Pradera.
Mr Cheung said the discount pricing was aimed at grabbing attention, and he expected prices of additional units to be higher. The target average price for the project was $2,000 per square foot.
As sweeteners, buyers are entitled to furniture fittings worth between $68,000 and $98,000.
Another developer, Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), yesterday cut its forecast for revenue from property sales for the year to $12 billion.
SHKP vice-chairman and managing director Raymond Kwok Ping-luen disclosed the revised estimate in a statement on the group's completion of an $8 billion syndicated loan. He said about $9 billion of the anticipated $12 billion was expected to come from the forthcoming pre-sale of six projects, adding residential sales had picked up recently.
SHKP had generated $2.3 billion from property sales in the first two months of this year. In March, the group said a further 6,300 units could be released for sale this year, realising about $13 billion if they were sold out.
An SHKP spokeswoman said the revised revenue estimate was due to the sale of the Kowloon Station phase-three residential development being delayed. The project, comprising about 1,100 units, was originally planned for sale at the end of the year but had been rescheduled to next year.
Meanwhile, SHKP and Cheung Kong (Holdings) yesterday released a batch of 15 units at their unfinished project, Vianni Cove, in Tin Shui Wai near Yuen Long.
Cheung Kong executive director Justin Chiu Kwok-hung said the units were priced at $1,649 per square foot, slightly above previous sales.
