A Mong Kok block formerly owned by late fugitive police sergeant Hon Kwing-shum, also known as Hon Sum, failed to sell in a government auction yesterday.
The Government Property Agency auction offered two of Hon's former properties for sale - one on the fourth floor at 5A Humphreys Avenue in Tsim Sha Shui and the other at 184-186 Tung Choi Street in Mong Kok.
The Tsim Sha Tsui premises, comprising about 735 square feet, was sold for HK$4.72 million, according to the agency's records. The opening bid for this property was HK$3.8 million. The Mong kok property comprises a nine-storey block, with a site area of about 1,985 sq ft. The opening bid was HK$78 million and bids as high as HK$86 million had been offered. But the auctioneer decided to withdraw the lot.
Alvin Lam of Midland Surveyors, which was appointed the auctioneer at yesterday's sale held in a Tsim Sha Tsui hotel, said: 'The bids did not meet the reserve price. So, it was withdrawn. The response was fine, considering that it was the sale of a whole block.'
Neither Lam nor the agency would disclose the reserve price of the Mong Kok block.
Hon died in 1999. The government filed a writ in 2000 seeking to recover assets from his estate frozen by the ICAC.