Three biggest Hong Kong developers occupy 80pc of MTR residential sites
City's largest developers have occupied majority of residential sites put up for tender by railway company, study into real estate oligopoly shows
Three major developers occupy over 80 per cent of the MTR Corporation's residential property project market share, a study on the oligopoly in Hong Kong's real estate sector has found.
The finding by the housing policy think tank Land Watch comes amid heightened expectations from the government and the public of the railway company as a residential land supplier in recent years, after the administration vowed to ease the city's housing shortage.
A year ago, Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po criticised the MTR Corp - of which the government is the major shareholder - for not doing enough to help boost housing supply.
While Land Watch criticised the MTR Corp's practice of selling large sites as a barrier to smaller developers joining the fray, the firm insisted it would split projects into several smaller ones when it could, but said that was not always feasible.
Only six developers and consortiums led by them had ever won in the bids over these 14 years. Nearly half of the total gross floor area - 44 per cent - was won by Cheung Kong (Holdings), the largest developer in Hong Kong, followed by Sun Hung Kai Properties with 20 per cent of the pie, and New World Development at 19 per cent, bringing the "big three" total to 83 per cent.
Sino Land, Chinachem and Wheelock each got 10, 4 and 3 per cent of the floor areas, respectively.
