Sun Hung Kai, CK Asset to launch 453 flats on the same day, vying for buyers’ cheques as Hong Kong’s property downturn looms

Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) will offer 235 flats at its Cullinan West III complex near the Nam Cheong subway station for sale on Thursday

CK Asset Holdings will sell 218 units at Seaside Sonata in Sham Shui Po, a walk of about 10 minutes away, on the same day

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Cullinan West III (left), Cullinan West I and Cullinan West II (right) built by Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) near the Nam Cheong subway station in Sham Shui Po. Photo: Wikipedia

Published: 8:15am, 15 Oct 2019Updated: 8:39am, 15 Oct 2019

Hong Kong’s two biggest property developers will each launch a batch of flats for sale this week, their first head-to-head competition in five years as they vie for buyers amid a slowdown in the world’s most expensive housing market.

Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) will offer 235 flats at its Cullinan West III complex near the Nam Cheong subway station for sale, while CK Asset Holdings will sell 218 units at Seaside Sonata in Sham Shui Po, a walk of about 10 minutes away.

The competing sales, due to take place the day after Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor delivers her much-anticipated policy address – her most important speech every year at the start of the legislative calender in October – will test the market’s appetite for residential property, after four months of street protests wreaked havoc on the local economy. Lam is expected to increase affordable housing to ease the yawning inequality that was singled out by China’s state media as the “cause” of Hong Kong’s anti-government protests, and introduce a vacancy tax to force developers to add to the city’s housing supply.

“Every [developer] wants to sell early because of the [impending] vacancy tax and so many market uncertainties,” said Vincent Cheung, managing director at Vincorn Consulting and Appraisal. “The [number of flats] launched this year has been higher than last year so I think they are in a rush to sell quickly.”

CK Asset's Seaside Sonata development on Hai Tan Street in Sham Shui Po on 31 July 2019. Photo: Tory Ho

The last time SHKP and CK Asset went head to head was in August 2014, when SHKP launched 192 units of The Wings IIIA in Tseung Kwan O on the same day that CK Asset offered 21 studio flats at Mont Vert in Tai Po, which kicked off a trend of micro-apartments in Hong Kong.

The competition this time comes at a precarious moment, as data from the Rating and Valuation Department showed Hong Kong’s home prices declining 1.4 per cent in August, the fastest rate this year. The price index for lived-in homes slumped for a third successive month to 389.8, while the Centa-City Leading Index sank 2.4 per cent from September 1 to October 6.