Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd (新鴻基地產), Hong Kong’s biggest developer, is offering new homes at a discount to entice buyers amid a worsening political crisis.
The first batch of units in the Kowloon development Cullinan West III have been priced at 20 percent lower than current market levels in the area.
The pricing is described by the developer as “traveling back in time” — it is close to the price set two years ago for the first phase of the same development, even though home values have risen 8 percent in the period.
“Recent social events and the US-China trade war have heightened some buyers’ wait-and-see attitude,” Sun Hung Kai Properties deputy managing director Victor Lui (雷霆) said.
Housing demand remains strong, as reflected by the good reception for other new projects, Lui said.
Months-long anti-government protests have put more property buyers on the sidelines and sales have been hit across the board.
The transaction value for new luxury homes slumped 31 percent in July to an eight-month low, Centaline Property Agency Ltd (中原地產) data showed.
Monthly rents for ultra-luxury residences have fallen by about the same amount, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday, citing Landscope Christie’s International Real Estate.
What began as protests against now-withdrawn legislation that would have allowed extraditions to the mainland have grown into demonstrations for wider democracy.
With Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) refusing to satisfy protesters’ demands other than officially killing the controversial bill, the unrest looks set to linger.
SLUMP IN TOURISM
The protests in Hong Kong, now in their 15th week, continue to impact the territory’s tourism industry and in particular visitors from the mainland, who are usually its biggest group of tourists.
The number of Chinese group tours to the territory in the first 10 days of this month fell 90 percent compared with the previous year, Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong data showed.
Last month, the decline was 63 percent compared with the previous year.
Hong Kong’s hotel industry is struggling with a collapse in bookings after protesters disrupted flights from the territory’s airport last month.
Hong Kong’s economy contracted 0.4 percent in the second quarter from the previous period, raising the prospect of a technical recession.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
MARKET LEADERSHIP: Investors are flocking to Nvidia, drawn by the company’s long-term fundamntals, dominant position in the AI sector, and pricing and margin power Two years after Nvidia Corp made history by becoming the first chipmaker to achieve a US$1 trillion market capitalization, an even more remarkable milestone is within its grasp: becoming the first company to reach US$4 trillion. After the emergence of China’s DeepSeek (深度求索) sent the stock plunging earlier this year and stoked concerns that outlays on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were set to slow, Nvidia shares have rallied back to a record. The company’s biggest customers remain full steam ahead on spending, much of which is flowing to its computing systems. Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are
UNCERTAINTIES: The world’s biggest chip packager and tester is closely monitoring the US’ tariff policy before making any capacity adjustments, a company official said ASE Technology Holding Inc (日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packager and tester, yesterday said it is cautiously evaluating new advanced packaging capacity expansion in the US in response to customers’ requests amid uncertainties about the US’ tariff policy. Compared with its semiconductor peers, ASE has been relatively prudent about building new capacity in the US. However, the company is adjusting its global manufacturing footprint expansion after US President Donald Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs in April, and new import duties targeting semiconductors and other items that are vital to national security. ASE subsidiary Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) is participating in Nvidia
RSS