Property prices soar in recently gentrified Tai Kok Tsui in Kowloon West, and more homes are on the way

All eyes are on Tai Kok Tsui – an area undergoing extensive regeneration since last year.

Once an area housing industrial and residential buildings, Tai Kok Tsui has recently undergone rapid gentrification, and home prices have shown significant growth over the past five years. Home prices soared to about HK$6,000 per square foot last year from about HK$3,000 in 2012, according to Land Registry figures.

Built around Olympic station is a cluster of interconnected residential complexes, including The Long Beach development, which was completed by Hang Lung Properties in 2005.

In April, Hang Lung put on the market the units it had kept unsold at The Long Beach since it was built. As of early June, more than 220 units had been sold, generating over HK$2.3 billion for the developer.

The average unit price was about HK$15,047 per square foot, slightly above the figures asked for by individual home sellers within the same development.

“The favourable market response clearly indicates that Kowloon West is a lure for homebuyers looking for an urban location with beautiful sea views and outstanding connectivity,” says Will Lui, a sales manager at Hang Lung Properties.

According to Lui, about 90 per cent of the buyers were locals, while the rest were from mainland China and other nationalities.

“Most [buyers] are working professionals seeking convenience and transport accessibility. And, unlike first-time buyers, they don’t quite need a second mortgage to cover part of their down payment.”

Janny Chan, a senior district sales director at Midland Realty, adds that some of the buyers at The Long Beach are locals who have been waiting for the right opportunity to acquire their own home. “At least 10 per cent of the deals for The Long Beach units we handled were closed by tenants living nearby,” she says.

Last October, Henderson Land Development put another project, Eltanin Square Mile, for sale. So far, about 85 per cent of the units, with most of them measuring less than 300 sq ft, have been sold at an average price of about HK$18,600 per square foot.

Henderson says it will likely launch another Tai Kok Tsui project under the Eltanin brand, located at Ka Shin Street, for sale as early as next year, depending on the progress of the construction.

Elsewhere, Paliburg and Regal Hotels are set to market The Ascent, a 23-storey, 157-unit single-block complex at Shun Ning Road in Cheung Sha Wan, in the third quarter.

The apartments, between 276 sq ft and 458 sq ft, are studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units.

In early April, the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) said it had received a total of 30 expressions of interest for the development of the Pine Street/Oak Street project in Tai Kok Tsui.

The redevelopment site covers an area of more than 8,000 sq ft and can accommodate about 115 units on completion, according to the URA.

Developers will be invited to submit a tender for the redevelopment once the URA completes an initial review.

Developers will also be required to hand over 25 units on the lower floors, or about 10,500 sq ft of residential floor space, back to the URA to compensate the original residents affected by the project.

The market is also eagerly awaiting the much larger Nam Cheong station project, which is being built by Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) in partnership with the MTR Corp.

The development is scheduled for completion in phases between 2017 and 2019. On completion, it will comprise 14 buildings, including 3,410 units. Of them, about 2,720 units will be built as small homes with no more than 538 sq ft of saleable floor area each.

No sales plan for the Nam Cheong station project has been announced yet, an SHKP spokeswoman says.