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THE biggest property transactions in March, which reached $5.4 billion in value, included one ''spectacular'' deal in which Pearl Oriental Holdings companies bought and sold the same site in Central twice for a 50 per cent increase.

  Pearl Oriental Holdings subsidiary Global Time bought the 3,375-square-foot commercial site at 128-134 Wellington Street for $405 million, then, soon after, sold it for $600 million to Super Keen Investment.

  Pearl Oriental Holdings owns 70 per cent of Global Time and 30 per cent of Super Keen.

  Alan Dalgleish, research manager of First Pacific Davies who provided the figures, said the $5.4 billion in overall sales in March was in line with his expectations - about the same as for February, when there was $6 billion in transactions.

  Both months' figures were far below the $20 billion worth of transactions carried out in January, but property analysts said this was expected.

      Experts said it was possible the number of big deals would fall sharply in April, especially after the Government had said in late March that it would move to control the market.

  Mr Dalgleish said the transaction figures reflected a ''healthy'' property market, but the value of transactions could fall sharply in April because of the Government's announcement.

  Gareth Williams, a director at Vigers, said he expected buyers and sellers had become cautious ''in a knee-jerk reaction'' to cooling prices since the announcement.

  But there was little significance in the difference in figures between February and March, he said.

    Chris Thrift, director at Richard Ellis, said the slowdown was more to do with lack of supply than lack of interest.

  He said vendors were holding off from entering the market just as much as buyers who were waiting to see what happened to prices.

  But it was too early to say whether prices were dropping.

   Currently, deals for strata titles - individual office floors - were still being struck at prices about the level they were three months ago.

  Figures that Mr Dalgleish provided showed that, in March, the biggest deal completed was for an office building in Wan Chai: the China Underwriters' Centre on Gloucester Road was sold for $605 million by Sea Holdings to SEABIL Pacific.

   Pearl Oriental Holdings bought 58-64 Stanley Street from Ever Star Properties, for $400 million, in addition to its other Central transactions.

   Other big deals in March included the sale of a 3,564 sq ft commercial site at 289-295 Hennessy Road for $529 million by Eternal Way International to Chi Cheung Investment.

  Most of the 20 big deals completed in March were for commercial/office properties, but there were also a handful of residential sales.

  The biggest residential sale was for a 10,800 sq ft site for $330 million at 298 Sha Tsui Road, in Tsuen Wan.

  A 17,650 sq ft industrial/office site was sold for $50 million at 830 Lai Chi Kok Road, in Shamshuipo, and an 11,375 sq ft industrial site was sold for $143 million at 56 Hung To Road, in Kwun Tong.



March deals slide to $5.4bn