Snaking queues of thousands of prospective apartment buyers in Hong Kong signaled authorities have made no progress in cooling a red-hot property market, where prices are at record highs.
People on Friday and over the weekend were lining up at Victoria Skye, a luxury project at the former Kai Tak Airport site, and at the Ocean Pride development by Cheung Kong Property Holdings Ltd (長江實業地產) and MTR Corp (香港鐵路).
“Successive moves by the government in recent memory to cool the property market only resulted in it becoming crazier,” the Standard newspaper said in an editorial yesterday. “The result is a sea of madness.”
Photo: Bloomberg
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has been tightening rules for lenders, including restricting levels of lending to developers, as it tries to limit financial risks and take some of the heat out of the market.
The Centaline Property Centa-City Leading Index of existing homes has advanced 23 percent in the past year, setting new price records week after week.
At a Legislative Council meeting yesterday, HKMA Chief Executive Norman Chan (陳德霖) said levels of demand were reminiscent of 20 years ago — before Hong Kong suffered a property bust — and he expressed concern that people with limited financial resources were buying just because they thought prices would only keep going up.
Developers sold 8,616 homes in the first five months of the year, already more than were sold in any first half since new purchasing rules were introduced in 2013, the Hong Kong Economic Times reported.
K&K Property (建灝地產) has offered an additional 200 units at Victoria Skye after it sold 306 apartments on Saturday, Ming Pao newspaper reported.
Cheung Kong is to put another 346 up for grabs after selling 496 in a single day on Friday last week, it said, adding that the developers are to raise the prices of the additional units by about 2 percent.
The Hang Seng Properties Index of developers yesterday rose as much as 1.2 percent, up more than 20 percent this year, ignoring Hong Kong banks’ move over the weekend to up mortgage rates.
Commercial banks in the mortgage loans market, including Standard Chartered PLC, HSBC Holdings PLC and Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd (中國銀行香港), said they would raise interest rates following the latest round of mortgage tightening measures by the territory’s de facto central bank, the HKMA.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
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