A consortium including Sino Land Co (信和置業) paid a record HK$17.3 billion (US$2.2 billion) for a plot of residential land in Hong Kong, signaling that the property market is still running hot.
Shimao Property Holdings Ltd (世茂房地產), Wheelock Properties Ltd (會德豐地產), K Wah International Holdings Ltd (嘉華國際集團) and SEA Holdings Ltd (爪哇控股) were the other members of the group, the Hong Kong Lands Department said in a statement late on Wednesday.
Hong Kong’s residential property market, the world’s most expensive, continues to hit fresh highs even as cracks start to appear in the outlook for prices amid rising interest rates.
Commercial property, where Hong Kong rents are the highest in the world, is also in demand. A Chinese state firm this month led the record HK$40.2 billion acquisition of a 75 percent stake in The Center, a 346m skyscraper, from Li Ka-shing’s (李嘉誠) CK Asset Holdings Ltd (長江實業集團).
The site sold on Wednesday at Cheung Sha Wan in Kowloon has a maximum floor area of 91,770m2, the lands department said.
The price is a record for residential land, surpassing the HK$16.9 billion paid for a site in Ap Lei Chau in February.
At a land cost price of HK$17,500 per square foot, the implied selling price when the development is completed in three or four years would range from HK$30,000 to HK$33,000 per square foot, said Raymond Cheng (鄭懷武), director of Hong Kong and China property research at CIMB Securities Ltd.
The market was expecting a price between HK$14,000 and HK$18,000 per square foot, he said, adding that the winning bid was on the high side because the larger consortium, with five members, could bid more aggressively.
The Cheung Sha Wan project has ocean views and is adjacent to the West Kowloon district where the government is building a multi-billion dollar museum complex and high-speed rail terminus connecting Hong Kong to China.
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