City Point project seen as turning point for Hong Kong housing sector
Sales in the primary housing market picked up modestly after Cheung Kong (Holdings) released the price list for its City Point residential development in Tsuen Wan.
Analysts expect the primary market to pick up further if Cheung Kong reaps strong sales from the project, triggering a turning point in the housing sector. Property agents have said that the initial response to the project was strong.
Cheung Kong said the first batch of flats would go sale on Saturday.
Twenty-five new units were sold across the city during the last weekend, up from 21 units the previous weekend, according to BNP Paribas.
Cheung Kong released its first price list for City Point, located near Tsuen Wan West MTR station, last week. The first 350 units are priced at an average of HK$12,149 per square foot of saleable area.
BNP Paribas said the average price after the maximum 15.75 per cent discount would be HK$10,236 per square foot, comparable to the average selling price of previously owned homes in the area.
Morgan Stanley said the average selling price for the first 330 units surpassed its forecast.
City Point was seen as an important contributor to Cheung Kong's earnings and a turning point for the property sector, the investment bank said.
"Sales of such a large project, if successful, will bring up primary market volume," said Praveen Choudhary, a property analyst at Morgan Stanley, in a report.
The project is jointly developed by Cheung Kong, Nan Fung and MTR Corp.
There are seven towers with 1,717 units sized between 482 and 914 sq ft, with two to four bedrooms.
Separately, in the secondary market, there were 13 units sold at the 10 largest residential estates tracked by Centaline Property Agency over the weekend, compared with 18 units in the previous weekend.
According to Centaline, the Centa-City Leading Index dropped 0.25 per cent last week to 118.56. The index has fallen 0.4 per cent so far this year.
