Buyers spurn Hong Kong’s first home sale in two months, as Covid-19 outbreak adds weight to a slumping property market

China Evergrande sold 49 of the 141 flats on offer at Emerald Bay in Tuen Mun as at 5pm, even after the developer increased its average discount to 14 per cent

With Evergrande’s latest discounts, a 461-square foot flat originally listed at HK$9.41 million could be bought for HK$8.07 million

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China Evergrande offered 141 flats at its Emerald Bay project in Tuen Mun at 14 per cent discounts on 7 March 2020, the first property launch in two months since the outbreak of coronavirus in Hong Kong. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 7:11pm, 7 Mar 2020Updated: 11:35pm, 7 Mar 2020

Hong Kong’s homebuyers spurned the city’s first property sale in two months, as larger-than-usual discounts failed to attract them to big-ticket financial commitments amid a slumping economy wrecked by a coronavirus outbreak.

China Evergrande sold 49 of the 141 flats on offer at the second phase of its Emerald Bay project in Tuen Mun as at 5pm, even after increasing the discounts on each unit by HK$20,000 per square foot to an average of 14 per cent, from the previous 11 per cent, according to sales agents.

“Everyone is worried,” because the coronavirus “epidemic is so serious,” said Louis Chan, vice-chairman of Asia-Pacific and chief executive of the residential division at Centaline Property Agency. A sales haul of 34 per cent is “already very good [considering how] the price is not exceptionally cheap,” he said.

The reception at Hong Kong’s first major property launch in two months underscores the correction that is underway in the world’s most expensive residential property market, as the local economy finds itself in the first technical recession in more than a decade. It’s a slump that still has ways to go, even after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority slashed its base lending rate by 50 points on March 4 in lockstep with an emergency cut in the cost of money by the US Federal Reserve.

“The price [of Phase Two] is similar to that of Phase One,” said Centaline’s Chan, adding that the developer was also offering small units priced between HK$4 million and HK$5 million for buyers.

Emerald Bay, comprising 1,982 apartment units and 22 villas in Tuen Mun, is Evergrande’s maiden project in Hong Kong, as one of China’s biggest developers seeks to establish a beach head for expanding offshore. Its first offering of 167 flats last October sold out in one day, as the developer slashed prices amid easier mortgage financing rules to attract homebuyers to a neighbourhood that had been the focus of several anti-government protests.

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