According to JLL's latest Hong Kong Residential Sales Market Monitor survey, after the government awarded the tender for Kai Tak Area 4C Site 1, only two remaining residential sites on the Kai Tak runway could enjoy Victoria Harbour views. Since there is a limited supply of land with a view of Victoria Harbour, developers will continue to be interested in purchasing sites in Kai Tak. عقارات قطر | عقارات | شقق للبيع
According to the Town Planning Board, there are only two remaining residential sites on the Kai Tak runway that could provide potential units with Victoria Harbour views. However, since the sites are farther away from the runway's end, the views would be more obstructed.
Beyond Kai Tak, the number of Victoria Harbour seafront residential projects completed in the city's urban areas will be extremely small. Fewer than five such residential projects are expected to be completed between 2019 and 2020, according to our data on potential availability.
Despite the escalation of tensions between the US and China, as well as a bout of social unrest, the winning bid for the new Kai Tak site remains strong. JLL's senior director of capital markets, Henry Mok, said: "The majority of potential units on the sites in Kai Tak's former airway runway area will have unobstructed sea views, and the market is already envisioning it as a future high-end residential area within the region. Developers from Hong Kong and the mainland were interested. On the remaining two waterfront locations, we expect developers to stay the course."
JLL's senior director of research, Cathie Chung, said: "Furthermore, in the first half of the year, 57 percent of the government residential sites up for tender were sold to mainland developers and their consortiums. It's up from 43 percent in the second half of 2018. It implied that mainland developers are bullish on the city's housing market in the medium to long term. Another cause, we assume, is that the majority of the sites up for tender are in Kai Tak, which is a well-known market for mainland developers and is in a prime spot. This prompted mainland developers to become more involved this year."
In the midst of political unrest in Hong Kong, developer bids for the Kai Tak site have dropped by 67%.
In 2020, land prices in Hong Kong will begin to fall.
According to JLL's latest Residential Sales Market Monitor Study, the average number of bidders for residential sites in Kai Tak fell by 67 percent from two years ago to just 5.5 in 2019. Developers have been more selective with their land acquisitions as a result of this.
When the tender for the residential site (NKIL 6554) at Kai Tak was declared on November 13th, it received four bids. This, along with NKIL 6577, which sold in July, is the smallest number of bids received among residential sites sold in the area so far. This year, the total number of bidders for residential sites in this region fell to 5.5, down from 6.5 in 2018 and 16.3 in 2017.
JLL's senior director of Capital Markets, Henry Mok, said, "This is due in part to an increase in the number of consortiums bidding for government property, especially for larger-scale projects. However, given the market's downside risks, it's clear that developers are attempting to reduce investment size and risk."
Cathie Chung, JLL's senior director of research, added, "The Kai Tak site (NKIL 6554) was sold for HKD 15.95 billion to a consortium that included China Overseas Land and Investment, Henderson Land, K Wah International, and Wharf Growth. The cost of the accommodation was 27% less than the cost of an adjacent site (NKIL 6553) five months prior "hs ago," she says.
"In the months of August to October, Hong Kong's unemployment rate increased to 3.1 percent, indicating early signs of labor market weakness. Furthermore, the city's mood has been affected by the uncertainty surrounding the new political situation. As a result, in the short-to-medium term, developers are likely to follow more accommodating bidding and pricing strategies, resulting in a drop in land prices "she continued.