Sino Land to add almost 2,000 flats to Hong Kong’s housing supply with Kwun Tong project

Kwun Tong, a former industrial area in Hong Kong’s Kowloon East district, is being transformed into a modern neighbourhood complete with stylish apartments and offices, through an urban renewal project.

The redevelopment site occupies an area of 570,000 sq ft and has five development phases, three of which have been earmarked for residential use. The redevelopment will have a gross floor area of 4.32 million sq ft.

Kwun Tong residential site attracts 25 bids despite concerns over infrastructure capacity

Hong Kong developer Sino Land’s 1,999-unit Grand Central residential project is part of the redevelopment’s second and third phases. And the company will shrug off souring sentiment to unveil the project’s first price list by the end of October.

“It is not only connected to the Kwun Tong MTR Station and APM shopping centre, but can also be reached from Kowloon Bay, Island East as well as the Kai Tak area, within 12 minutes,” said Victor Tin, associate director (sales) at Sino Land.

Industry observers said Sino Land could fetch record prices for Kwun Tong, similar to new flats in Kai Tak that went for as much as HK$40,000 (US$5,103) per square foot. But according to JLL, the current average price of residential homes that were completed over the past 10 years in Kwun Tong only ranges between HK$16,000 and HK$18,000 per square foot.

The Sino Land apartments will range from 350 sq ft to 1,485 sq ft and will be spread across four residential towers. The first batch of units will include 1,025 units, while the second phase will have 974 units.

Next to the redevelopment’s three residential phases will be a mixed-used complex with more than 400 hotel rooms, grade A office space and a large shopping centre, as well as a proposed shopping complex with more than 1 million sq ft of retail floor space.

Next Year, JPMorgan will move to its new offices in Kwun Tong, joining peers such as Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of East Asia in exiting Hong Kong’s main business district, Central, home to the world’s most expensive commercial real estate.

Kowloon East is now Hong Kong’s second largest grade A office submarket. Flexible working space providers such as Naked Hub, WeWork and Tencent WeStart have occupied more than 100,000 sq ft in total in the area.

“In a couple of years, high-income professionals will like to settle down in Kowloon East, and will follow their companies to become major buyers and tenants [in the area],” said Danny Cham, regional director at Centaline Property Agency.

“Kwun Tong, with a well-established transport network, will see a whole new landscape of residential home prices after the government’s redevelopment plan.”

Other market observers too expect Kwun Tong’s once sleepy residential housing market to take-off soon. “The location will be gentrified – demolished old buildings will be replaced by high-quality, high-rise residential blocks. It is expected to raise the residential price in the neighbourhood,” said Cathie Chung, national director of research at JLL.

The redevelopment site is also located next to one of the 10 stops of a proposed HK$12 billion monorail that will run through the old Kai Tak airport runway, Kwun Tong, Kowloon Bay and parts of Kowloon City.