Kai Tak home plot's floor price sinks 18% to $8.33b

This is compared to a record-sale in the same area six months ago.

Reuters reports that a harbourfront residential plot in Kai Tak was sold at a dismal $8.33b (US$1.06b) which is nearly a fifth less than the per-square-foot price of a similar sale earlier this year.

The psf price of the prime plot was 18.4% lower than a record sale in the same area six months ago in another sign of the property market’s new normal. 

Also read: All roads point to a correction in Hong Kong's weakening property market

The site, with a maximum gross floor area of 53,383 square metres (574,610 sq ft), represents $14,502 per square foot. This pales in comparison to the record high $17,777 psf that Sun Hung Kai Properties paid in May in the same district.

Surveyors have also lowered their estimates by 5-10% from the previous forecast to value the site between $7.75b to $9.2b in response to souring sentiment in the world’s most expensive market.

The site was sold to a consortium led by local developers including Wheelock Properties, New World Development , Henderson Land Development and Empire Development Hong Kong (BVI).

Also read: Commercial property transactions plummeted 65% in Q3 as rattled Chinese investors retreat

The 28-month uptrend of residential property prices in the SAR ground to a halt in August in response to a global equities rout and higher interest rates that have weighed in on sales and buying sentiment. 

“The heyday of Hong Kong developers' strong sales margins -- when projects were sold at record-high prices on land acquired at low cost -- could draw to a close in 2019 as the property market shows signs of weakness,” Patrick Wong, analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence said in an earlier report. 

Here’s more from Reuters:

Photo from Wpcpey - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0