Dynamite, it is said, comes in small packages, and the smallest of the 62 sites up for sale in this year's land application list provided new evidence to support the saying.
Last week the government announced it had accepted a minimum bid of HK$10 million, or HK$8,090 per square foot, for the sale of a 2,060 square foot low-rise residential site in Pak Sha Wan, Sai Kung, on May 9.
The forthcoming sale of the plot will also be the smallest by site area since 1998 when a 949 sq ft residential site at Chik Fuk Street, Tai Wai, sold for HK$11.6 million - 157 per cent higher than the HK$4.5 million opening bid. Back then the site was sold to a private company, New Foundation Development, after the firm defeated seven bidders.
In the latest 'small is beautiful' deal, Mathew Chung, a sales manager at Sunshine Property Consultant, said the government had been leasing the auction site at Pak Sha Wan to a private owner of a house on a neighbouring site.
'It was being used as a garden and car parking space by the owner until the house changed hands last year,' Mr Chung said.
At the same time that the lease expired, the house next to the auction site was demolished, sparking speculation in Sai Kung over whether the new owner of the auction site might trigger a sale in order to integrate the two adjoining sites into one and redevelop the enlarged site into a bigger house.