Hong Kong property: homebuyers hoover up more than 90% of units at Henderson Land’s Belgravia Place on second day of flat sales

The second round of sales is expected to be ‘robust’, Midland Realty’s Sammy Po says
Uptown East, a residential project developed by Wong Sun Hing and New World Development, has released its first price list for an initial batch of 168 units

Hong Kong property

Salina Li

Published: 8:17pm, 7 Mar 2024

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Homebuyers flocked to a second round of sales at Henderson Land Development’s Belgravia Place project on Thursday amid expectations that first-hand sales are likely to hit a 40-month high in March.

Of the 208 units on offer, 191 or about 92 per cent were sold by 10pm, the developer said. The sale started at 5pm local time.

More than 35 buyers vied for each available flat after Henderson received more than 7,300 expressions of interest from homebuyers, who put down a deposit in the hope of securing a flat, the developer said.

A strong sales performance was expected on Thursday after all 138 units at Belgravia Place offered for sale over the weekend were sold out in four hours, netting around HK$748 million (US$95.6 million) for Henderson.

“It is expected that the second round of sales will continue to be robust, with about 90 per cent of the units sold,” Sammy Po Siu-ming, CEO of Midland Realty’s residential division for Hong Kong and Macau, said earlier in the evening. A mainland Chinese buyer had bought four units for a total price of HK$22 million, he added.

In last week’s budget announcement, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po scrapped decade-old property market curbs in an effort to revive the city’s struggling real estate sector.

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The transaction volumes of both first-hand and second-hand homes have picked up quickly since, reflecting an increase in public confidence in home ownership, according to Po. He expected that more than 2,500 first-hand transactions will be recorded in March, a 40-month high, while the second-hand market will hit a 13-month high with 5,000 deals.

Since the budget announcement, a total of 247 units had been sold at six of Henderson’s developments, said Thomas Lam Tat-man, general manager of the sales department at the developer.

The 208 units put up for sale are priced from HK$3.23 million to HK$7.8 million after discounts, or HK$14,878 to HK$17,237 per square foot. The cheapest unit is a 199 sq ft studio with an asking price of HK$3.2million, or HK$17,094 per square foot.

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Meanwhile, Uptown East, a residential project developed by Wong Sun Hing, a smaller Hong Kong developer and New World Development, which owns a 20 per cent stake, has released its first price list for an initial batch of 168 units. Flats at the project will be put up for sale in the next two weeks.

Uptown East becomes the second residential project to enter the market after the removal of all of Hong Kong’s property cooling measures. Units at the project will range from studios to two-bedroom flats, with areas from 278 sq ft to 561 sq ft. The discounted price per square foot is HK$14,808.

The cheapest unit, a 278 sq ft studio, will cost HK$3.7 million or HK$13,406 per square foot after a maximum discount of 23 per cent.

The project consists of two 40-floor buildings with 807 units, and a three-storey shopping centre. The units will range in size from studios to three-bedroom flats with saleable areas ranging from 235 sq ft to 3,415 sq ft.