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Hong Kong’s real estate bull run gets a lethargic start in Year of the Ox as city’s first sales weekend gets a mixed response

  • Hong Kong Ferry Holdings and Empire Group sold 76 of 128 flats on offer at Skypoint Royale as of 9.30pm, agents said
  • Chevalier International Holdings and the Urban Renewal Authority sold none of the 42 flats on offer at the Sablier project, comprising mostly unsold flats

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Buyers line up for Skypoint Royale developed by Hong Kong Ferry (Holdings) in the sales office at Mira Place One, Tsim Sha Tsui on February 20, 2021. Photo: Dickson Lee

Hong Kong’s homebuyers made a tentative return to the market, giving their collective cold shoulder to older projects but picking up flats at a new launch to give a mixed response to the city’s first property sales in the Year of the Ox.

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In Tuen Mun in the New Territories, Hong Kong Ferry Holdings and Empire Group sold 76 flas, or nearly 60 per cent of the 128 units on offer, at the second-round sales launch of Skypoint Royale as of 9.30pm, with as many as 32 buyers bidding for every available flat, agents said.

In Tai Kok Tsui, Chevalier International Holdings and the Urban Renewal Authority failed to sell any of the 42 flats on offer at the Sablier project, left unsold from a previous launch.

“The turnout of prospective homebuyers has been pretty good,” said Sammy Po Siu-ming, chief executive of Midland Realty’s residential division, adding that the sales result was within his expectations. “This is not the first round of sales for the projects, and many potential homebuyers have already purchased flats from previous rounds of sales. The price of flats has also risen slightly.”

Illustration of Skypoint Royale. Photo: Handout
Illustration of Skypoint Royale. Photo: Handout
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The tentative return of homebuyers, helped by a booming stock market, is a particularly important indicator of improving sentiments, particularly for a city that is still grappling with an unemployment rate that worsened in January to 7 per cent, close to a 17-year high. A tapering of new confirmed coronavirus infections and the availability of vaccines have bolstered confidence, prompting the local government to relax some of its social-distancing measures, including even exploring so-called travel bubbles to Singapore.
The first 1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines arrived in Hong Kong on Friday. Social distancing restrictions were also relaxed as new infections in the city dipped, after the government had stepped up mandatory testing and implemented lockdown measures to rein in the fourth wave of infections in the city.
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