Hong Kong’s homebuyers return to snap up Wheelock’s Grande Monaco flats at the former airport site in Kowloon
- Wheelock sold 80 flats out of 88 offered at Grande Monaco at the former Kai Tak airport site at 8pm, with about 10 buyers bidding for every apartment
- Sales agents expect to sell between 80 and 90 per cent of the units by the day’s end
Hong Kong’s homebuyers returned to the real estate market, defying an uptick in the city’s coronavirus cases as they remained upbeat about the effectiveness of a Covid-19 vaccination programme and low interest rates on consumption levels.
Wheelock Properties sold 80 flats out of 88 offered at its 247-unit Grande Monaco project at the former Kai Tak airport site in Kowloon as of 8pm, with about 10 buyers bidding for every available apartment. Sales agents expect to sell between 80 and 90 per cent of the units by the day’s end.
Prices for the latest batch of Grande Monaco average HK$24,124 per square foot after discounts, starting at HK$7.66 million for the smallest flats, while sizes range from 345 to 961 square feet (89 square metres). Subsequent launches at the project may be priced 5 to 10 per cent higher, owing to the project’s sales prospects, Wheelock said.
“The sales performance is going well,” said Sammy Po, chief executive of Midland Realty’s residential division. “The price is [in line with] the market level, not particularly low.”
Hong Kong’s latest caseload of confirmed new coronavirus infections rose to 33, including a cluster found among patrons of a restaurant at the K11 Musea shopping centre.
Still, homebuyers were not deterred by the deteriorating Covid-19 situation, or the slump in global stock markets last week caused by a sudden rise in bond yields.