HK builders sell homes despite protest
HONG KONG: Henderson Land Development Co and New World Development Co sold most of the apartments they released over the weekend as protests that have paralysed parts of Hong Kong kept some buyers away.
The developers sold almost 200 of the first 220 flats on Saturday at their joint project Double Cove Starview Prime, sales records show. There were 101 purchases within the first hour, said Thomas Lam, Henderson’s sales general manager. New World sold 130 of the first 132 units at its Pavilia Hill project over the weekend, according to official records compiled by the government.
While brisk sales at project debuts this year have propped up developers’ cash holdings and stock prices, pro-democracy demonstrations that started on Sept 26 may rock the confidence of homebuyers if the unrest persists.
Real estate agents reported a drop in the number of people looking at homes, while Centaline Property Agency Ltd, Hong Kong’s largest closely held realtor, said existing home transactions over the weekend fell to a nine-week low.
“The housing projects that attract more investor buyers may be more affected”bytheprotests,Henderson’s Lam said on Saturday at the site of the Double Cove sale. “The proportion of end-users here is very high. From the looks of it, there doesn’t seem to be a big impact” at Double Cove, a 1,092-unit project located in the suburban Shan.
Pavilia Hill is on Hong Kong Island, one subway stop from Causeway Bay, the shopping district that’s home to the most expensive retail strip in the world and – recently –
district
of Ma On one of the three major sites blockaded by protesters.
Hong Kong is facing its worst political crisis since China reclaimed sovereignty in 1997 as hundreds of thousands of people have gathered on the streets and blocked traffic with makeshift barriers of fences and garbage bins. The demonstrators, led by a handful of students and professors, are demanding China retract a decision in August to screen candidates for Hong Kong’s leadership election in 2017. — Bloomberg