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Sophia Wong

Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), one of the largest developers in Hong Kong, is spending HK$10 billion to create a landmark community in Yuen Long as a model for future large-scale residential developments.

Alfred So Chung-keung, the executive director of SHKP marketing subsidiary Sun Hung Kai Real Estate Agency, said SHKP was building a new model for future developments with its pioneer project, YoHo Town.

The project is near the Yuen Long Station along the West Rail, which is due to begin operations this year.

Phase one consists of more than 2,000 flats, due to be completed by the first half of next year - making it one of the biggest developments coming up for pre-sale this year.

YoHo stood for Young Home, Mr So said, but buyers might not be only young couples.

'The project emphasises joy of living in a comprehensive community,' he said. 'Buyers can be everyone looking for a happy life. Here, we bring in the latest technology and much creativity.'

SHKP has invited various business partners, including Samsung, Starbucks and fashion designer Johanna Ho, to provide quality and professional goods and services for the residents of YoHo Town.

'We hope the people living here have nothing to worry about. The community will be self-sufficient, with a clean and healthy living environment, comprehensive dining, shopping, entertainment, education and transportation facilities,' he said.

'YoHo is a brand with its own development concept.'

The concept originates from New Town Plaza - the first large-scale private residential and commercial complex developed by SHKP above Sha Tin Station on the Kowloon-Canton Railway (East Rail) in the early 1980s.

New Town Plaza helped transform Sha Tin from a rural area into a comprehensive community of middle-income families relocated from Kowloon and the New Territories, Mr So said.

'Sha Tin was lacking infrastructure and the population was low before [New Town Plaza was completed].

'When the project was finished, a bus terminal together with a nearby railway station provided convenient transportation for living and shopping,' he said.

YoHo Town had similar advantages as it was within a new transportation hub in the western New Territories. Mr So said a bus terminal would be incorporated into the project to provide multi-routes connecting other areas in Hong Kong as well as the mainland.

YoHo Town consisted of three phases to be completed within the next five to six years, said Mr So. The investment cost for the whole development was estimated at HK$10 billion. The first phase, offering more than 2,000 residential units, would be released for pre-sale soon.

Mr So said about 70 per cent of the units in phase one had two bedrooms and the rest had three bedrooms.

A shopping mall of about one million square feet would be built in the retail podium at a cost of about HK$3 billion.

SHKP was planning 24-hour business operations within the mall to increase flexibility, but Mr So said details were still under consideration.

He said planning for phases two and three, including the design of the mall, had not been finalised, pending land premium assessment. The developer has to pay a land premium to have the land converted from agricultural to residential and retail use.

According to the company's Web site, YoHo Town consists of two lots.

One spans more than two hectares and provides a gross floor area of about 1.2 million sq ft; the other is about three hectares and provides a gross floor area of 1.7 million sq ft.

Mr So said the focus of home buying was shifting to the northern New Territories as Hong Kong was integrating with the mainland.

SHKP believed Yuen Long would be a huge hinterland and was targeting additional development opportunities in the area.

The company was interested in another large residential and retail development above Yuen Long Station.

The multibillion-dollar development package could provide several thousands of units and is expected to be tendered for sale by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp.



SHKP to invest $10b in Yuen Long project