Hong Kong property: CK Asset discounts #Lyos ‘nano flats’ by 32%, signaling the end of the fad for miniscule homes
CK Asset, the flagship property developer of tycoon Li Ka-shing, has slashed the price of some of the remaining flats at its project in the Northern Metropolis by almost a third compared with when it was first launched in 2021.
The batch of 28 units – 14 flats and 14 garden duplexes – are part of #Lyos, a residential project in Hung Shui Kui in the New Territories. They will go on sale next Sunday, May 19.
CK Asset has so far sold 298 of the 341 units that comprise the development, raking in over HK$1.8 billion (US$230 million). #Lyos was completed last year.
#Lyos was at the vanguard of the proliferation of Hong Kong’s so-called nano flats, tiny units measuring less than 300 square feet, or even 200 sq ft. Generally studios or one-bed apartments, these minuscule homes, also referred to as micro flats, are often open-plan and do not have a window in the bathroom.
More than half of the 341 flats in #Lyos range in size from 202 to 292 sq ft.
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Living in 15 sq ft: Inside Hong Kong’s coffin homes
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The 14 apartments going on sale at the weekend had previously found buyers who then forfeited on their deposits, CK Asset said on Monday. Ranging from HK$3 million to HK$6.5 million, some of these will be reduced in price by as much as 25 per cent from three years ago.
The cheapest unit, measuring 202 sq ft, will be offered for HK$3 million, which translates to HK$14,846 per sq ft.
The same sized flat was priced at HK$3.53 million back in 2021, when the project carried an average price tag of HK15,503 per sq ft, a record for a newly built home in the area at the time.
For the garden duplexes, the discounts stretch to 32 per cent, according to the developer. These units are priced from HK$11.3 to HK$12.8 million.
The cheapest measures 788 sq ft and carries a price tag of HK$11.3 million, or HK$14,353 per square foot.
“[The size of discount] depends on developers’ own strategy, the project location and size,” said Martin Wong, director and head of research and consultancy for Greater China at Knight Frank. “In general, developers are actively destocking. They are prioritising sales volume over price in the short term.”
Home prices are likely to rise by 5 per cent to 10 per cent by the end of this year as second-hand transaction volume and prices rebound, the developer said.
Hong Kong’s residential property transactions have seen an immediate uptick since the removal of all cooling measures.
At the weekend, homebuyers continued to be enticed by bargains as they snapped up all 210 flats available at Sun Hung Kai Properties’ new project in Yuen Long.
This month’s first-hand transactions could reach 2,500, compared to 1,800 in April, according to a forecast by Centaline.
In his budget speech on February 28, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po announced the lifting of all the property curbs that were put in place more than a decade ago to cool an overheated market.
At the same time, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority eased mortgage restrictions, making homes valued at less than HK$30 million eligible for 70 per cent mortgage financing, compared with the previous cap of 60 per cent for homes valued between HK$15 million and HK$30 million.
