Weekend primary home sales plunged 47% to 41 deals

Market diverted to upcoming sales.

Citing the Hong Kong Economic Journal, Barclays said in its report that the weekend primary sales fell 47% w/w to 41 transactions, as the market’s attention has been drawn to upcoming sales at Sino/Hopewell’s The Avenue II and Nan Fung’s The Visionary. 

Unlike the premium pricing strategy for the Imperial Kennedy and Park Metropolitan, developers seem to have reverted back to a low price strategy for The Avenue II and The Visionary.

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Located in Wan Chai, phase II of The Avenue provides a total of 1,096 units. On 21 and 22 November 2013 the developer released two price lists for a total of 330 units priced at HK$23,045psf. With up to a 17.5% discount on the headline price, the net selling price is only HK$19,012psf.

Compared to the average secondary market transaction price of HK$21,190sf (on an NFA basis) at nearby J Residence and HK$24,808psf at One Wanchai, it is 10% and 23% lower.

Similarly, Nan Fung released the price list for 318 units at The Visionary (total 1,419 units) at HK$9,686psf. With up to a 22% discount offered, the net price is HK$7,672psf. This is 3% below Caribbean Coast, 15% below Seaview Crescent and 18% below Coastal Skyline.

Until yesterday, The Avenue II and The Visionary had received 1,800 and 1,700 expressions of interest, respectively. Sales of The Avenue will start this coming Wednesday, 27 November, while The Visionary sales will begin this Saturday, 30 November.

Over the past weekend, notable primary sales included 17 units at HLP’s Long Beach, in West Kowloon, 12 units at SHKP’s Imperial Kennedy in Western District and one house at 28 Barker Road on the Peak. SHKP has so far cleared 126 units at Imperial Kennedy with total proceeds of around HK$1bn, representing 78% of total 161 units.

At the super high end, Hutchison Whampoa sold two houses at 28 Barker Road in the past week. Swire Properties now intends to sell the 11/F unit at Opus in The Peak through a tender.

The developer set a reference price of HK$470mn for the luxury flat. With 5,409sf SFA, the reference price of HK$470mn works out to HK$86,892psf.

Upcoming launches to watch include SHKP’s Century Gateway II (1,075 units) in Tuen Mun, Cheung Kong’s Hemera (1,648 units), the third phase at Lohas Park in Tseung Kwan O and City Point (1,717 units) in Tsuen Wan.