Local News
Flats for locals set for debut
The first residential project aimed exclusively at Hong Kong residents is set to go on the market.
Show flats of Heya Green in Sham Shui Po will be open to the public from tomorrow.
It is the first non-subsidized residential project launched by the Hong Kong Housing Society in nine years.
"They are unlikely to accept purchases under company names," said a source close to the society.
"The project is targeted at Hong Kong people only. But, of course, if sales do not go well, the units could be opened up to non-residents later on."
So far, there are no plans to place a lock-up period - a time within which the units cannot be resold - on the flats, the source added.
The society refused to say whether the project has been granted presale approval by the Lands Department.
The 327 units at the project - sized between 570 square feet and 780 sq ft - are expected to be priced in line with other flats in the neighborhood.
Newer secondary flats in the area now cost between HK$6,000 and HK$7,000 per square foot.
But a market source said Heya Green would cost more than the four benchmark projects nearby.
Flats at those projects - Banyan Garden, Liberte, Pacifica and Aqua Marine - average HK$7,300 psf.
Eighty percent of the Heya Green units have two bedrooms.
The project is expected to be worth around HK$1.5 billion. Construction is due to be competed by the third quarter of next year.
As for the luxury market, Cheung Kong (Holdings) (0001) plans to price a specialty flat at Kennedy Peak, in Mid-Levels, at HK$61,600 psf.
The 3,866 sq ft unit has a private swimming pool and four bedrooms. The price could be as high as HK$238 million.
Secretary for development Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor told Dow Jones Newswires yesterday that 30,000 private homes are expected to be available for sale during the current fiscal year running from April 2012 to March 2013.
Only 19,500 private homes were put on the market in the last fiscal year.
Lam said in the long run, the government wants to build a large land bank that will allow it to respond to fluctuating demand.
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