Hong Kong’s homebuyers snapped up all the new flats available during a weekend sale in the New Territories, attracted by the district’s cheapest launch prices in eight years after the developer offered massive discounts to revive demand in a sluggish market.
Early Light International Holdings, a property developer owned by the tycoon Francis Choi Chee-ming, sold all 188 apartments on offer during the initial launch of The Uppland at the Gold Coast Bay in Tuen Mun as of 6.20pm, according to real estate agents.
The first batch of flats on offer comprised studio units to three-bedroom apartments, with prices ranging between HK$1.84 million (US$235,588) and HK$7.03 million after discounts. That translates to a range of HK$8,903 to HK$11,900 per square foot. The average price is about 10 per cent cheaper than a project launched last month in the same neighbourhood.
The pricing of The Uppland project “is very attractive, so lots of buyers have turned up”, said Sammy Po Siu-ming, chief executive officer of the residential division at Midland Realty, one of Hong Kong’s biggest network of real estate agents. “The developer may put more flats for sale in the near term.”
Choi, dubbed the “Toy King” of Hong Kong for producing die cast Nascar collectibles and licensed dolls including Harry Potter and Bratz, turned to developing property two decades ago.
Early Light priced its new project in the New Territories at an eight-year low, reflecting how Hong Kong’s developers are deploying low-price strategies to entice buyers amid a slump in transactions.
The rare sell-out helped to reverse bearish sentiment in the market. Two weeks ago, a single flat was sold out of 50 units left over from a September 2022 launch at the Miami Quay project in Kai Tak.
Hong Kong’s property market, the world’s most expensive, has been grappling with elevated borrowing costs, a result of the city’s monetary policy in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve to maintain the local currency’s peg to the US dollar, and high inventories amid a moderation in economic growth.
The supply of new flats in the city is expected to soar to 112,000 in the next three to four years, according to the estimate by the Housing Bureau, while demand is dwindling under interest rates that remain at a 23-year high and a slowing economy.
Rising expectations about an interest-rate cut by the Fed in mid-September may offer some relief to Hong Kong’s property market, after the Fed Chairman Jerome Powell pointed to signs of a softening US labour market and a slowdown in inflation.
About 80 per cent of the potential buyers of Gold Coast Bay that registered with Centaline Property Agency live in the New Territories, with most of them being natives of Hong Kong, according to Louis Chan Wing-kit, chief executive officer of the real estate agency’s residential division.
Chan expected a rebound in the property market in July on rising expectations about an interest-rate cut by the Fed, with transactions of new-home sales to almost double from the previous month to 1,300 deals.
Home prices may drop 3 per cent in the third quarter and will probably rebound by between 3 and 5 per cent in the following three-month period if the local monetary authority cuts rates in lockstep with the Fed, he said.
With additional reporting by Salina Li
