Hong Kong: Hong Kong’s new home sales are expected to bring record proceeds this year as property developers actively sell new residential projects to raise cash for land.
Full-year new private residential sales in the city are estimated at HK$175bn ($22bn), the highest since 1996, when the data was first collected, Wong Leung-sing, an associate research director at Centaline Property Agency Ltd, said in an e-mailed statement on December 27.
“Home prices are so high that the new units are sold at HK$10m on average,” Wong said by phone yesterday. His company is Hong Kong’s largest privately held realtor. “Developers are actively selling new residential units to generate cash.”
Sentiment has improved and buyers have returned to the market after Hong Kong’s recent pro-democracy protests, Wong said. Developers are seeking to expand their landbanks as the city’s government accelerates land sales to boost housing supply. The government stopped regular land auctions in 2004 amid the Asian financial crisis and the SARS epidemic, only resuming them in 2011.
Dragons Range, a new residential project in the Sha Tin district developed by companies including Kerry Properties Ltd and Sino Land Co, has generated sales of HK$4.4bn this month through December 19, according to the statement. The Parkside, a project by Wheelock Properties Ltd, has recorded sales of more than HK$2.7bn in the same period, the highest after Dragons Range.
New home sales in Hong Kong may reach a total of 16,500 units this year, the highest since 2007, Wong said in the statement.
A total of 16,190 new home sales were registered this year through December 19, 66 percent higher than the whole of 2013. They have brought in HK$174bn this year through December 19, 89 percent more than 2013, according to the statement.
Separately, the number of used home transactions may reach 42,500 with a total of HK$235bn proceeds, according to the statement. Bloomberg
