Nan Fung estate may set price records
Nan Fung Development will launch a luxury residential project in Happy Valley for sale as early as this month, with rental and selling prices expected to set new highs for the area.
'Prices can challenge those in the district to set a new high,' Raymond Lai Hok-leung, deputy general manager of Nan Fung's property department, said in a press conference about the Winfield Building project on Ventris Road.
Nan Fung bought two of three residential blocks in Winfield Building at 1, 3 and 5 Ventris Road from the government two years ago for about HK$2.14 billion and has since renovated them. They were previously used as staff quarters or leased to the public.
Lai said the company had treated the project as a new development.
Managing director Donald Choi Wun-hing said supplies of new flats in the district were rare and the last residential project built on Ventris Road was 26 years ago.
There are 84 units in the two blocks; all with views of the racecourse.
The first block, which contains four-bedroom flats of 2,500 square foot, will be rented out. The three-bedroom units at Block B, which are about 2,000 sqft each, will go on sale as early as this month.
Nan Fung said prices would be announced later.
'There is limited supply of large flats in this district and there is demand for such flats,' said a property agent who asked not to be named.
The agent said flats at The Leighton Hill, a nearby private estate built in 2002, had sold for about HK$26,000 to HK$27,000 per square foot in June and July. Rents were about HK$49.90 and HK$53.70 per square foot.
In 2009, property agency Midland Realty said the average price of flats at Leighton Hill was HK$18,000 to HK$19,000 per square foot.
The agent was surprised that the renovated Winfield Building, which was built in 1984, might set future price records for the area.
The units in Block C have been sold to individual owners. As the three blocks are on a common three-storey podium, no redevelopment can occur unless the property company owns the third block as well.
Cheung Kong (Holdings) yesterday said about 30 four-bedroom units on the upper floors of its Lohas Park Phase 2C development in Tseung Kwan O would begin sales at about HK$9,000 per square foot.
The company hoped prices might rise to about HK$10,000.
