Housing Society makes a cool HK$2 billion on Hong Kong's hottest day
Further evidence that Hong Kong's property market is in no mood to cool down arrived yesterday, when the Housing Society sold all 275 flats at a new development, netting it HK$2 billion on the city's hottest day ever.
There was huge buyer interest as large queues formed - despite the heat - for units in the Heya Aqua development in Cheung Sha Wan. The sale was oversubscribed 21 times amid continued property price rises.
However, market watchers say further price gains in the rest of the year are expected to be limited amid expectations of rising supply.
"Heya Aqua's good sales are within expectations given the new-flats market is particularly hot as demand has been outstripping supply," said Sammy Po Siu-ming, the chief executive of Midland Realty's residential property department. "But with supply expected to rise in the next three years, price growth will slow."
He said the agency was projecting an average gain of around 3 per cent for small to medium-sized flats in the second half of the year, after prices rose just over 6 per cent in the first half.
Heya Aqua is the last in a series of private residential property redevelopment projects by the Housing Society in Cheung Sha Wan. Its launch comes hot on the heels of the 350 units of neighbouring Heya Crystal, which were 99 per cent sold in one day a week earlier.
Some 5,951 applications with deposits were received for the Heya Aqua units, according to the Housing Society.
The one to three-bedroom flats were being offered for HK$12,594 to HK$16,938 per square foot.
Buyers are being offered discounts of up to 10 per cent for the project, which is due for completion in early 2017.
According to Sammy Po and Louis Chan Wing-kit from Centaline Property Agency, some 60 to 70 per cent of their clients applying to buy Heya Aqua units were people who had not been able to buy Heya Crystal units.
Some 80 per cent of potential Heya Aqua buyers were end-users and the rest were investors, Po estimated.
Figures released on Friday by the Rating and Valuation Department showed that privately owned home prices had risen by 0.74 per cent in June from the previous month and 20 per cent from a year ago, reaching a new high.
Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Professor Chan Ka-keung has said the government would closely monitor market risks and introduce new measures if necessary.
He said expectations of higher interest rates plus supply, demand and the health of the economy would all influence housing prices, adding he expected the increasing supply of new flats to relieve shortages in the coming year.
Industry experts said Hong Kong's developers were gearing up to launch new projects as the government's recent projections for a record supply of private homes over the next three to four years were likely to cap price rises.
Centaline associate research director Wong Leung-sing believes the government could meet its annual target of 20,000 units for new private housing supply by 2017.
