CK Asset launches second batch of Blue Coast project to warm reception as Hong Kong home-buying curbs ease
- CK Asset sold 130, or 70 per cent, of the 184 units on offer on Saturday, according to sales agents
- The flats put up for sale include two-bedroom to four-bedroom units priced between HK$10,548,000 and HK$37,691,000
The second batch of CK Asset’s Blue Coast project in Wong Chuk Hang has received a warm response from homebuyers, as sales continue to surge after the government eased property curbs.
A total of 130, or 70 per cent, of the 184 units on offer were sold by 8pm Saturday, when sales closed for the day, according to Sammy Po Siu-ming, CEO of Midland’s residential division for Hong Kong and Macau.
“Including the flats sold today, more than 540 units [from the Blue Coast project] were sold in the past eight days, with the average price reaching HK$18 million per unit,” he said. “The combined worth of the flats sold has surpassed HK$10 billion, a truly impressive result.”
Around 2,000 homebuyers and agents had gathered at the developers’ sales office in Metropolis Drive in Hung Hom earlier on Saturday to wait for the results of a lottery to determine their eligible flats, CK Asset said.
Among them, one family offered to snap up five flats, while another prospective buyer offered HK$120 million for six flats, sales agents said.
The flats released this round include two-bedroom to four-bedroom units ranging from 454 to 1,276 square feet. The price was set between HK$10,548,000 and HK$37,691,000, with an average price of HK$24,835 per square foot.
CK Asset expects to raise prices in future Blue Coast sales, but will also release new flats with lower prices, Justin Chiu Kwok-hung, executive director at the developer, said. He added that CK Asset is planning to launch other projects from late April to May.
Around 70 per cent of homebuyers who showed up on Saturday were buying for their own use, while the rest were investors, said Midland’s Po. Around 40 per cent were from mainland China.
One of the mainland buyers, a woman who gave her surname as Wu, said she has been living in Hong Kong for seven years working in the legal industry. She said she was attracted by Blue Coast’s price level and its location above an MTR station on Hong Kong Island.
“As a permanent Hong Kong resident, it may have been more beneficial to us when the stamp duty was not yet abolished,” she said. She worried that the easing of property curbs would attract more potential homebuyers to Hong Kong, reduce her chance of snapping up a flat and drive up housing prices.
Following Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po’s announcement in February to scrap Buyer’s Stamp Duty targeting non-permanent residents and a New Residential Stamp Duty for second-time purchasers, the city’s property sales rose to a 10-month high in March, surpassing 5,000 deals, compared to 3,189 deals in February.
The city’s primary housing market is expected to remain active throughout this month with more new projects coming to the market, reaching around 3,000 deals, said Po at Midland.
The second-hand housing transaction volume is expected to continue to improve and record around 4,000 deals, with prices increasing by 2 per cent this month, driven by a surge of buyers, he said.
