Hong Kong developers are showing greater confidence in the city’s market outlook following a series of support measures. A consortium including Wheelock Properties and New World Development is offering smaller discounts for their new units in Kai Tak after buyers returned in droves.
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At Double Coast I, the two developers and their partners China Overseas and New World Development set the price for the first 78 units at HK$17,899 per square foot on average. That is about 3 per cent below the average for units at Twin Victoria in Kai Tak when the project was launched last month.
New home launches in the city typically offer buyers discounts ranging from 13 to 20 per cent, according to Midland Realty.
“The first price list is still the “most conservative” in Kai Tak, site of Hong Kong’s former airport runway, according to Stewart Leung Chi-kin, chairman of Wheelock Properties. “There is room for prices to increase in future.”
Buyers snapped up most of the units on offer in recent weekends after the government unleashed more aggressive measures to revive the housing market. In his policy address last week, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu lowered mortgage financing terms to pre-2009 levels.
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Homebuyers are now able to obtain as much as 70 per cent financing, regardless of the value or use of the property. The debt-servicing ratio has been raised to 50 per cent from 40 per cent, standardising the level for both residential and non-residential properties.