Sino Land sales and land buys to be unaffected by cooling measures
Sales of new projects and land acquisitions to continue despite increases in stamp duties
Sino Land chairman Robert Ng Chee Siong said yesterday the company would continue to buy development sites despite government measures to cool the property market.
The measures "won't affect our sales schedule of new projects", he said at the firm's annual general meeting.
"We will also continue to acquire development sites. We are interested in tendering for the two sites in Tseung Kwan O and Ma On Shan."
Tendering for the sites will close tomorrow. Property analysts have lowered their valuations for the sites by about 10 per cent since the new measures - involving increases in stamp duty on certain transactions - were announced.
Alvin Lam, a director at Midland Surveyors, expects the sites to be worth HK$2.36 billion and HK$2.02 billion, respectively, as developers start to bid more conservatively.
Sino Land executive director Daryl Ng Win-kong said: "We saw that property sales dropped last Saturday and Sunday. It showed potential buyers were digesting the news of the cooling measures. We will continue to monitor the market. It's too early to tell the impact."
In Singapore, property sales reverted to their previous levels three to four months after the government imposed a stamp duty on foreign buyers.
