HONG KONG'S volatile property market, thrust into a state of flux by last week's controversial Government land auction, received a significant boost yesterday with the sale of the San Miguel Brewery site in the New Territories to the Wheelock Group for $3.5 billion.
The price was much higher than expected by analysts, who believed the public tender for the 492,000-square-foot site in Castle Peak Road, Sham Tseng, would fetch between $2 billion and $3 billion.
The buyer was Diamond Hill Development Holdings, a consortium formed of equal shareholdings by Wheelock and Co, Wharf (Holdings) and Hong Kong Realty and Trust.
The company was set up last year by Peter Woo Kwong-ching's group to buy a 1.7 million-square-foot site at Diamond Hill at a Government land auction for $3.53 billion.
Losing bidders were believed to have included Cheung Kong (Holdings), which recently spent $280 million on a strategic 10 per cent stake of San Miguel Brewery Hong Kong, Sun Hung Kai Properties and Hang Lung Development.
A jubilant victor, Ray Tse, managing director of Wheelock Properties, said: ''The site's potential makes it a good addition to Wheelock's land bank. This is a rare opportunity to acquire one of the largest sites to be made available in recent years.'' He said the proposed redevelopment of the San Miguel site, which overlooks Kap Shui Mun and the future Tsing-Ma Bridge, dovetailed well with the group's Diamond Hill development, which is scheduled to be completed in 1996.
Resources from the Diamond Hill development, upon completion, will be deployed to Sham Tseng.