Housing Society to offer 5 projects to build 1,200 flats
The Hong Kong Housing Society said it will launch five residential projects for sale, which will offer as many as 1,200 small-to-medium-sized flats to the public from this year to 2016.
The first real estate, “Heya Green” at Po On Road in the Sham Shui Po district, will start pre-sales between April and June this year, the organization said on Thursday, adding that this two-building real estate is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.
“Heya Green” will provide 327 units of two- and three-bedroom flats, ranging from 570 to 780 square feet, according to the housing society.
Over 60 percent of the units are two-bedroom flats to meet the market’s needs. All the homes will be sold at market prices, Wong Kit-long, chief executive offer of Hong Kong Housing Society said on Thursday.
While the pricing is yet to be determined, Wong noted that the average home prices in the area currently was in the range of between HK$6,000 to HK$7,000 per square foot.
Wong added that these homes will be sold to Hong Kong residents as a priority. If the organization receives too many purchase applications, it may apply, among other methods, the ballot approach to dispose the flats.
The five development projects, which were initially under the city’s Urban Renewal Authority (URA), were later transferred to the Housing Society as the URA has too many projects at hand.
The five lots were acquired at fairly high prices 10 years ago, Wong told China Daily, but did not give details.
“Even if these flats are priced in line with the market price, we can barely break — even unless home prices rise in the next few years,” said Wong.
Centaline Property Agency’s Director of Research Wong Leung-sing said these delayed real estate projects could still be attractive to the public as the usable area will reach up to 80 percent of the building area.
“Compared with residential homes launched by the city’s private developers, flats constructed by the Housing Society are designated in a simple and practical way with more usable spaces,” said Wong Leung-sing.
“The construction quality will be examined after the buildings’ completion. As many Hong Kong people still prefer to live in mature places, sales prospect of these projects are quite positive,” he added.
Hong Kong government has set a target to ensure an annual supply of 20,000 apartments in the city to meet the people’s needs and to counter anti-speculative activities.
The Lands Department on Thursday said on its website that tender for a site at Tseung Kwan O, New Territories, has been sold to Fortune Precision Limited on a 50-year land grant with a premium of HK$1,860 million.
The site covering an area of some 8,246 square meters is designated for construction of 590 to 620 residential flats, according to the government.
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