Sun Hung Kai, MTR defer sale of 1,172-flat Cullinan West III project as Hong Kong’s protest rallies take their toll on market mood

Cullinan West III, comprising 1,172 apartments atop the Nam Cheong subway station, is scheduled for completion at the end of 2019

MTR and Sun Hung Kai are not the only developers to be pushing back their launch dates, as 4,000 flats in 11 uncompleted projects with presale approvals have yet to go on the market

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Hong Kong protesters taking a break outside a closed real property agent during a rally in Hong Kong on 3 August 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 6:00am, 12 Aug 2019Updated: 6:00am, 12 Aug 2019

Hong Kong’s biggest residential property developer is postponing the sale of its next mega project, in the latest sign that nine weeks of public unrest and almost daily clashes between police with protesters are taking an ever-bigger toll on consumer sentiment.

Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) and MTR Corporation would offer the 1,172 flats at the Cullinan West III project atop the Nam Cheong subway station upon their completion, said David Tang, the property director of the project’s joint developer MTR. The project, which is expected to complete construction at the end of 2019, was initially scheduled for a launch in August.

“We intend to sell the units when it is due for completion,” Tang said after during a Friday press briefing after MTR posted a 468 per cent jump in interim profit from property sales. “Buying a property may not be the [first] consideration on most people’s minds at a time when the city is facing such challenges.”

Hong Kong’s economic growth, which shrank in the second quarter from the first, had been in a downbeat mood this year, squeezed as it has been by the year-long trade war between the United States and China. Sentiments took a turn for the worse after an estimated 1 million people marched on the streets on June 9 to protest against a controversial extradition bill.

Even though the unpopular legislation was declared “dead” by the government, it continued to draw protest rallies, which have deteriorated into violent clashes everyday, forcing the police to resort to tear gas and rubber bullets to repel protesters who laid siege to police stations, public space and shopping centres.