Wheelock Properties wins Kwu Tung residential land tender with US$540 million bid
- The plot in the northern New Territories can yield a gross floor area of 492,390 sq feet
- At HK$8,499 per square foot, Wheelock paid 18.3 per cent more than Sun Hung Kai Properties did for an adjacent plot in April
A residential site in one of the least developed areas of Hong Kong was sold for higher than market expectations to Wheelock Properties on Wednesday.
Wheelock won the parcel in Kwu Tung in the northern New Territories for HK$4.19 billion (US$540 million), some 7.4 per cent more than the top end of market expectations.
Located next to a plot won by Sun Hung Kai Properties in April, it is the third parcel of land to be offered for government tender in Kwu Tung in as many months.
The plot, called Area 24, can yield a gross floor area of 492,390 sq feet and was sold for HK$8,499 per square foot. This was 18.3 per cent higher than the HK$7,184 per sq ft Sun Hung Kai Properties paid for the adjacent plot, Area 25, in April.
“The winning bid was higher than market expectations, and the past few plots have all been sold at very satisfactory prices, reflecting that developers are very confident in the future of the area,” said Thomas Lam, executive director of Knight Frank.
Wheelock outbid 11 major builders including Henderson Land Development and CK Asset Holdings. A joint venture between Chinachem Group and Hysan Development, and a joint bid by Far East Consortium and Tai Hung Fai Enterprise also threw their hats into the ring.
The total investment cost would be around HK$7 billion to HK$8 billion, said Ricky Wong Kwong-yiu, managing director at Wheelock.
The plot could be developed into small-medium residential flats to allow more supply for first-time buyers in the area, said James Cheung King-tat, a surveyor at Centaline Surveyors. He expected the flats could sell for over HK$20,000 per sq ft.
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The MTR Corporation secured approval in December to plan and design the HK$62 billion Northern Link rail project. The 10.7km railway will include Kwu Tung station, serving the transport needs of the Kwu Tung North New Development Area which, when finished, will accommodate almost 120,000 people and create 33,000 jobs.
In April, SHKP beat nine rivals to win Area 25 for HK$8.61 billion, some 40 per cent higher than the market valuation. SHKP’s winning bid was just 4.9 per cent above the HK$8.21 billion second-highest offer, according to a Lands Department announcement on May 26.
In June, Wing Tai Properties won another residential site in Kwu Tung for HK$2.62 billion, or HK$9,208 per square foot.
