Cheung Kong ends the guessing with launch plans
After rivals set pace, developer announces sales timetable for Diva project, with others to follow
While Hong Kong's big name developers have rushed to lock in sales by launching new projects since October, the biggest player - Cheung Kong (Holdings) - has stayed on the sidelines.
The company's slower-than-expected sales schedule has puzzled the market, but the city's biggest developer in terms of market value says it is now ready to join the fray.
The company yesterday said it would launch the sale of its 118-unit residential development, Diva, in Electric Road, Tin Hau, by the end of this month or next month.
The project, on an old land lease and exempt from the need to obtain pre-sale consent, is the first new project to be launched by Cheung Kong since The Rise development in Tsuen Wan in September.
Executive director Justin Chiu Kwok-hung said the company had also obtained pre-sale consent for its Mont Vest development in Tai Po - with 1,350 units - this week.
That project would be offered for sale after the Lunar New Year, starting from January 31, he said.
"The time the government spent approving pre-sale consent for our projects was longer than we expected," Chiu said. "We had been overoptimistic before."
The government spent [more time than we had expected for] pre-sale consent
He said he had expected to obtain pre-sale consent for major projects such as Hemera, the third-phase release at Lohas Park in Tseung Kwan O, and City Point, a 1,717-unit development in Tsuen Wan, by this quarter.
He said earlier that the company had failed to meet its HK$30 billion sales target this year.
"The land leases of the third phase of the Lohas Park development and the Tsuen Wan project involve the use of GIC (land for government, institutional or community purposes). That involves various government departments and therefore it takes more time before the pre-sale consents are granted," Chiu said.
It might be good to launch the projects later, in any case, he said, because buyer sentiment had improved.
Sun Hung Kai Properties has been the most aggressive of the major players with the launch of four projects since October - The Cullinan at Kowloon Station, Imperial Kennedy in Western, Shouson Peak in Island South and Century Gateway II in Tuen Mun.
