Wheelock outbids rivals in Lohas Park site tender as Hong Kong developers replenish land bank amid market weakness

Wheelock & Co has beaten eight competing bids in the tender for the latest phase of Lohas Park development in New Territories as Hong Kong developers continue to replenish their land bank after a slide in real estate prices.

The company won the bid to develop the 961,100 sq ft (89,290 sq m) plot in southeastern New Territories, according to a statement from MTR Corporation, the vendor of the site. The plot can accommodate up to 2,000 homes, making it the largest among the phases in Lohas Park in the past five years.

Other bidders were CK Asset Holdings, Henderson Land Development, Sun Hung Kai Properties, China Overseas Land & Investment, Chinachem Group and Sino Land, MTR said on Tuesday. New World Development and Empire Group submitted a joint bid while another bid was not revealed.

“The winning developer has existing projects in the same district and has sufficient sales experience,” said Thomas Lam, an executive director at real estate consultancy Knight Frank. “It has been difficult to buy land in recent years, so developers will need to replenish their land banks” even amid the coronavirus outbreak, he added.

Hong Kong’s biggest developers have spent HK$110.1 billion buying up 17 parcels of land auctioned by the government since April last year, according to data published by the Lands Department, even as the city fell into its worst political crisis amid anti-government protests.