Price cuts entice Hong Kong home buyers into primary market

Homebuyers are flooding into Hong Kong's primary residential market as developers continue adopting a low-price strategy to offload their new projects, according to property agents.

With developers offering discounts of up to 20 per cent to entice buyers, agents saw a sharp decline in sales volume in the secondary residential market as homebuyers rushed to acquire new flats.

"The slump in sales in the secondary market is partly driven by investors shifting their attention to the equity market in view of the recent rally in the Hong Kong stock market," said Willy Liu Wai-keung, the chief executive of real estate agency Ricacorp Properties.

There were 430 units sold in the primary residential market over the weekend, of which 398 units were at CK Hutchison Holdings' Hemera at MTR Corp's Lohas Park station.

In Hong Kong's secondary market during the week of April 6 to 12, a total of 79 flats were sold at 50 housing estates monitored by property agent Ricacorp Properties, 23 per cent less than the sales level achieved in the previous week.

Kelvin Fan, a sales director at the Tseung Kwan O branch of Hong Kong Property Services (Agency), said the number of flat viewers dropped significantly in major housing estates.

"The majority of home seekers prefer visiting new projects," he said.

CK Hutchison will release for sale the last 510 units at Hemera this week, while Wheelock Properties will also offer its Peninsula East in Yau Tong. Wheelock on Sunday released the price list of an additional 90 units, raising the total number of units available for sale on Thursday to 150.

Average prices for the first batch of 60 units at the Peninsula East development were HK$12,198 per square foot. After applying as much as a 19.5 per cent discount for the flats, average prices will be HK$9,849 per square foot.