Hong Kong developers are becoming increasingly eager to boost their depleted land banks, with a residential site in Tseung Kwan O triggered for auction yesterday.
Nicholas Brooke, the chairman of Professional Property Services, said that, with Sino Land and its consortium partners having snapped up all the big sites offered for auction over the past two years, other developers needed to stock up on land.
Surveyors estimated the site near Tseung Kwan O MTR station could sell for close to HK$3 billion, or about HK$4,000 per square foot.
Under the application list system, a developer triggers an auction if it proposes paying 80 per cent of the government's reserve price, which is not disclosed.
The government said it had accepted a developer's minimum guaranteed bid of HK$2 billion, or HK$2,747 per sq ft, for the site. That will be the opening bid at the February 22 auction. It did not say which developer had made the bid.
The site, next to Bauhinia Garden, covers an area of 132,397 sq ft and can be developed into a mass residential project with a total gross floor area of 728,185 sq ft. To avoid a development with too great a building density, the Planning Department has imposed a height restriction of 100 metres. The project is also limited to 880 units.
According to data from Centaline Property Agency, prices at developments in the area - including Park Central, Tseung Kwan O Plaza and The Grandiose - range between HK$4,720 and HK$4,830 per sq ft.