CK Asset launches second batch of Blue Coast project to warm reception as home-buying curbs ease

Among them, one family offered to snap up five flats, while another prospective buyer offered HK$120 million for six flats, sales agents said.

As of Friday, CK Asset sold 415, or 98 per cent, of the 422 units it put up for sale in the first round last Saturday, worth a combined HK$7.6 billion. This time around, Po expected 80 per cent of the newly released units to be sold on the first day.

The flats on offer on Saturday include two-bedroom to four-bedroom units ranging from 454 to 1,276 square feet. The price has been set between HK$10,548,000 and HK$37,691,000, with an average price of HK$24,835 per square foot.

CK Asset expects to raise prices in future Blue Coast sales, but will also release new flats with lower prices, Justin Chiu Kwok-hung, executive director at the developer, said on Saturday. He added that CK Asset is planning to launch other projects from late April to May.

Among the homebuyers who showed up on Saturday, around 70 per cent were buying for their own use, while the rest were investors, said Po. Around 40 per cent were from mainland China.

One of the mainland buyers, a woman who gave her surname as Wu, said she has been living in Hong Kong for seven years working in the legal industry. She said she was attracted by Blue Coast’s price level and its location above an MTR station on Hong Kong Island.

“As a permanent Hong Kong resident, it may have been more beneficial to us when the stamp duty was not yet abolished,” she said. She worried that the easing of property curbs would attract more potential homebuyers to Hong Kong, reduce her chance of snapping up a flat and drive up housing prices.

Following Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po’s announcement in February to scrap Buyer’s Stamp Duty targeting non-permanent residents and a New Residential Stamp Duty for second-time purchasers, the city’s property sales rose to a 10-month high in March, surpassing 5,000 deals, compared to 3,189 deals in February.

The city’s primary housing market is expected to remain active throughout this month with more new projects coming to the market, reaching around 3,000 deals, said Po at Midland.

The second-hand housing transaction volume is expected to continue to improve and record around 4,000 deals, with prices increasing by 2 per cent this month, driven by a surge of buyers, he said.