Developers make no bids for MTR Corp's Tin Shui Wai homes site
Land premium charge 'too high', say surveyors, as rail firm withdraws residential plot from tendering after developers fail to make any offers
MTR Corp has withdrawn its residential site in Tin Shui Wai from tendering, as no developer submitted a bid for the site by the deadline yesterday.
Surveyors said the land premium charged by the Lands Department was too high.
Vincent Cheung Kiu-cho, the national director for greater China at property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, said: "The winning bidder has to pay a land premium of nearly HK$2,735 per square foot for the site. If they offered 5 per cent in profit sharing to MTR Corp, the land cost of the site would increase to HK$3,085 per square foot.
"The site is close to a light-rail stop, not an MTR station. The location isn't good. As the investment cost is high and the site is located in Tin Shui Wai, the developer would have to be able to bear a higher risk."
The average selling price of the flats would have to reach HK$8,400 per square foot of saleable area to achieve a 20 per cent profit margin, Cheung said.
However, prices of flats in the nearby housing estates Kingswood Villas and Central Park Towers were just HK$5,500 and HK$6,400 per square foot, said Ming Wan, a manager at Centaline Property Agency.