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Hong Kong property
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Carrie Lam’s policy address could push Hong Kong developers to put 10,000 flats up for sale in fourth quarter

  • Lam’s annual speech ‘will definitely’ focus on land and housing supply issues, says Sammy Po of Midland Realty
  • Developers will be pressured to sell faster, or not to sit on land banks for too long: analyst

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Centralcon Properties is expected to announce the pricing for its The Arles residential project in Fo Tan in the next two weeks. Photo: Handout
Lam Ka-sing
As many as 10,000 new flats may become available for sale in the fourth quarter of this year in Hong Kong, after Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the city’s leader, unveils a widely expected blueprint for increasing land supply to alleviate a housing shortage in her last policy address on October 6.

New residential projects will be launched after Lam’s annual speech, which “will definitely” focus on land and housing supply issues, said Sammy Po, the CEO of Midland Realty’s residential division.

“There were widespread rumours [last week] that the central government in Beijing had spoken to Hong Kong’s developers [about helping to alleviate the housing shortage],” Po said. “Beijing said it was concerned about Hong Kong housing issues about a year ago. So the chief executive will definitely talk about supply.”
Lam is expected to announce supply measures that could include speeding up the conversion of farmlands, the Land Sharing Pilot Scheme, the streamlining of the application process at the Town Planning Board, as well as possibly speeding up the funding for the Lantau Tomorrow Vision project.

The land sharing scheme is used to enhance the development potential of private land currently constrained by inadequate infrastructure.

Developers “will be pressured to sell faster, or not to sit on land banks for too long, given the political pressure”, excluding factors such as demand, progress in construction and approval processes that might not have kept pace with faster sales, said Lung Siu-fung, an analyst with CCB International Securities. “They won’t price [flats] lower though, unless [there is] further political pressure or direction – say the Hong Kong government imposes price caps or introduces other measures such as those in mainland China,” he said, adding that these measures would be “difficult” to introduce in Hong Kong.

About 35 new projects might hit the market in the coming months. Among these will be Centralcon Properties Company’s The Arles residential project in Fo Tan. The company is expected to announce the pricing for the 1,335-unit project in the next two weeks.

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