‘We won’t sell land at dirt cheap prices,’ Hong Kong’s finance chief says, vowing to focus on stable housing supply for society
- Financial Secretary Paul Chan reaffirms government’s commitment to land policy after year’s first sale of commercial plot fetches 35 per cent less than low end of valuation
- Government to place 18 more plots on market this financial year, contributing to projected HK$85 billion in land premium income
Authorities will not slash land prices but will equally seek to avoid rocketing valuations, Hong Kong’s finance chief has said, vowing to stick to the government’s goal of providing a sustainable and stable supply of housing.
“We can say that the government does not have a high land price policy, which had drawn criticism in the past. But we won’t sell land at dirt cheap prices either,” he said in a televised interview.
“For every tender, the Lands Department assigns a professional group of surveyors to make an independent evaluation of the site and set an undisclosed reserve price for the tender … So we have a very stringent tendering system for land sales.”
Sun Hung Kai Properties beat two other bidders to secure the tender for the 11,537 square metre (124,183 sq ft) site located north of Argyle Street and east of Sai Yee Street.
The sale came after the government withdrew three previous sites from sale in just over a month because of insufficient bids amid a downbeat market and high interest rates.
Market observers were left to wonder what the lower-than-expected sale indicated about future government land sales.