The first residential property sale in Hong Kong for the New Year has gotten off to a very good start, signaling an unwavering demand for homes in the city. The new residential property sale was launched by Sun Hung Kai Properties in Tin Shui Wai, the first new flats made available to buyers in the area in over a decade.
Hong Kong's largest property developer in terms of capitalization sold more than 375 units at its new Wetland Seasons Park project on its first day of launch this week. According to property specialists for the company, each available unit had an average of about 20 bidders. The agents claimed that the property could sell out earlier than expected due to the demand.
Midland Realty's residential division chief executive Sammy Po stated that the initial sales were better than expected. Po mentioned that the project could be quickly sold out given that home buyers are now back in the market following the positive developments in the China-US trade negotiations.
Prior to the launch, more than 7,370 potential buyers had registered to bid on the flats being offered by Sun Hung Kai. Each flat is priced between HK$9,988 per square foot to HK$16,915 per square foot.
The smallest unit available in the project, a two-bedroom unit with an area of around 386 square feet, is priced at HK$4.83 million. Meanwhile, the most expensive units, a three-bedroom unit, cost about HK$7.41 million.
Prices for the new units are about the same for existing flats being offered in the area, most of which are more than 20 years old, which are priced at around HK$12,000 per square foot.
Property experts explained that the massive amount of units sold in the Wetland Seasons Park project was for this very reason. Instead of purchasing older used homes in the neighborhood, buyers can purchase brand new units for about the same price.
It is apparently also now the perfect time to purchase new flats, as the prices are still relatively low. During the first months of 2019, prices had reached record highs. Prices were then slashed amid the yearlong China-US trade dispute and the start of the worst political crisis in Hong Kong. Now that the issues are slowly being resolved, prices are expected to climb once again.
The majority of the potential buyers that bid on the new project were apparently young people, many of whom were born after the 1990s. According to agents, the influx of new buyers is partly due to the pent-up demand from the last year, where buyers had chosen to temporarily hold off their planned purchases given the current situation in Hong Kong and the escalation of the trade dispute between China and the United States.
