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Hong Kong property
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Hong Kong developer Henderson Land says will increase supply of flats after strong showing in first half of 2021

  • Developer says it will make about 5,700 flats available for sale in the second half
  • Home prices will be volatile but will rise over the next several months, analyst says

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A residential development of Henderson Land’s in Hong Kong’s Quarry Bay. Photo: Felix Wong
Sandy Li
Henderson Land Development, the city’s third-largest developer by market value, said it will increase the number of flats it sells in the second half of this year after reporting a significant jump in core profit for the first half.
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The developer said it would make about 5,700 flats available for sale in the second six-month period, a 50 per cent increase from the 3,800 units it aimed to put up for sale during the same period in 2020.

“The local [coronavirus outbreak] has become stable and various sectors, with the exception of tourism, have gradually resumed their normal activities,” Henderson Land said in a filing to the stock exchange on Monday.

“Besides, the ongoing easing measures adopted by major central banks around the world have kept interest rates at a low level, which has rendered further support to the local property market,” Lee Ka-kit and Lee Ka-shing, the developer’s co-chairmen and sons of founder Lee Shau-kee, the second richest man in Hong Kong, said in the filing.

Henderson Land’s statement comes amid a new high in Hong Kong home prices. According to weekly data released by the Centa-City Leading Index, which tracks 133 housing estates in Hong Kong, home prices hit a new high in the first week of August, and were marginally higher than in June 2019, when anti-government protests rocked the city. The index retreated 0.5 per cent for the week ending on August 15, but not before stretching a three-week rally into the first seven-day period. The index, a gauge of prices of lived-in homes, is compiled by Centaline Property Agency.
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“Home prices will become a bit volatile after hitting a record high. But the overall trend will be prices rising over the next several months,” said Derek Chan, head of research at Ricacorp Properties. Ricacorp said it expected home prices to increase by up to 15 per cent if the border with mainland China is reopened this year.

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