Homebuyers claimed nearly all 160 flats available at Sun Hung Kai Properties’ University Hill project in Tai Po on Saturday amid heightened economic confidence.

Sun Hung Kai Properties sold all 191 flats on offer by 5.30pm on Thursday, hours after HSBC raised its best lending rate by 12.5 basis points to 5.75 per cent.

Up to 500 buyers will be competing for each unit as the University Hill development hits the market on Saturday, with discounted prices in place and amid a surge of Chinese visitors in the city.

Developers – not renters, buyers or the government – are likely to benefit from sales such as one in Mong Kok on March 1 that fetched 35 per cent less than a pessimistic estimate.

The option of paying in instalments appears attractive, but the buyer ends up paying more in interest costs, analysts said.

Hong Kong’s biggest mortgage lenders kept their prime rates unchanged immediately after the monetary authority’s June 16 move, giving homebuyers the opening to get ahead of higher borrowing costs.

Sun Hung Kai Properties on Sunday set the starting price for a 217 sq ft flat at its Silicon Hill project at HK$3.85 million in its latest price list. This was lower than the HK$4.97 million it asked for a 291 sq ft flat in the first round of sales on June 3.

HSBC, Standard Chartered, Bank of China (Hong Kong) and Hang Seng Bank kept their prime rates unchanged this week, even after the city’s de facto central bank raised its base rate by 75 basis points.

The sell-out launch marked the second bumper weekend for SHKP, which sold all 170 flats last weekend, a successful campaign that gave the developer the confidence to raise the average price by 0.9 per cent.

The company, which started out offering domestic services, now aims to revolutionise antiquated property-management practices in Hong Kong and Singapore for big-name developers.

The Hong Kong government rejected all five bids received for a 1.3 million square feet residential site in Tuen Mun, as all tenders came in below the reserve price.

Property developers, who usually conduct their sales campaigns on weekends, have deferred the launch of new projects until the second quarter, when the current Covid-19 outbreak is expected to recede.

Hong Kong – one of the most-expensive real estate markets in the world – has consistently set record land sale prices in recent years.

Developers are likely to take advantage of rising prices in the city to launch small flats as affordability becomes a concern, analyst says.

Private flats to be built under the Land Sharing Pilot Scheme will not necessarily cost more and is a ‘win-win’ solution for all stakeholders, managing director Ricky Wong says.

The progress of vaccinations and the lifting of cross-border travel restrictions were prerequisites for a full recovery of the retail sector, Raymond Kwok Ping-luen, SHKP’s chairman and managing director, said on Thursday.

In a city facing a housing crisis where demand hugely outstrips supply, thousands of completed flats remain unsold in Tai Po.

Wing Tai will expand its affordable luxury concept at its upcoming project in Kwu Tung, New Territories, where it set a land price record.

The tepid response to the leftover flats marked a momentary breather in Hong Kong’s galloping residential property market, fuelled by low-interest mortgages amid signs of a recovering economy.

The price gap between Kowloon and New Territories has narrowed from HK$4,000 per square foot in 2010, to about HK$1,700 per square foot according to recent sales launches, agents said.

The sale of the land is also a crucial test of the so-called two envelope approach, which awards the winning bid on the merit of designs, planning and their congruence with the surrounding, in addition to beating the minimum reserve price.

Increased investor interest was seen in Saturday’s sales of three newly released projects in Hong Kong.

An increasing number of housing estates in Hong Kong are becoming more pet friendly in a nod to homebuyers and residents who have adopted cats and dogs during the coronavirus pandemic, developers said.

Hong Kong has a rapidly greying population, with the number of residents older than 65 years projected to increase to 2.59 million by 2066, or 37 per cent of the city’s population, according to local authorities.

Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hysan Development and Sino Land see profits at their hotel and shopping centre businesses tumble as travel restrictions keep visitors away.

The five bids for a rare plot of land in Hong Kong’s upmarket The Peak district were in line with expectations and hinted at optimism about the city’s luxury residential market, analysts said.

The project, developed in partnership with transit operator and property developer MTR Corporation, has sold about 2,100 units in around six weekends for almost HK$24 billion.

The government is using a ‘two-envelope’ approach for the sale of New Central Harbourfront Site 3, meaning the winner will be determined by assessing both price and design proposal.

The weekend sale, Hong Kong’s first since Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor delivered her fourth annual policy address, underscores how the abolition of a double stamp duty for commercial property could stimulate economic activity and spill over to the residential segment and boost home sales, agents said.