HK to draw more mainland buyers

tion, which would lift local property prices. Local developers are not as competitive in bidding as mainland developers, Lui Che Woo, founder and chairman of listed firms Galaxy Entertainment Group and K. Wah International Holdings Ltd, told the Financial Times.

Lui said that he did not rule out the opportunity to cooperate with mainland developers, adding that Hong Kong is a free market and developers can freely invest in Hong Kong.

The opportunities for Hong Kong property developers are getting smaller.

According to JLL, the percentage of residential development sites won by seven major developers in Hong Kong — namely Sun Hung Kai Properties, Cheung Kong Property, Henderson Land, Nan Fung Group, New World Development, Sino Land and Wheelock Properties — in the public land sales market has shrunk steadily from 45 percent in 2012, to 28 percent in 2014 and 22 percent in 2016.

From a supply perspective, the seven developers would expect their share of total private completions to decrease to 53 percent between 2017 and 2019, from 84 percent in 2014 and 77 percent in 2016, based on JLL’s records.

David Ji, China head of research and consultancy at Knight Frank, said that for mainland developers buying Hong Kong land is one of their strategies to develop overseas markets, partly due to their own strategic deployment, regarding Hong Kong as a stepping stone.