A building site in Hong Kong was sold for about HK$1.33 billion or S$240 million yesterday, during the second government auction for this year.
The 8,900-sq-m building site in the Fanling area of the New Territories in northern HK was put into the government auction. According to the estimates of four surveyors, the building site could fetch between HK$1.32 billion and HK$1.45 billion, with a median price of HK$1.37 billion.
The Fanling site is near an industrial site and does not feature sea views, unlike the previous auction in Tung Chung, said James Cheung, director of Centaline Surveyors, one of HK’s biggest property agencies. Mr. Cheung estimated that the site would sell for about HK$1.32 billion, 16 percent lower that his previous estimate of HK$1.57-billion before the sale of Tung Chung.
A state auction for the Fanling site was triggered after the government received a minimum bid of HK$1.05 billion. The government only sells land sites through auctions after a developer commits to pay a minimum amount, which is part of an undisclosed reserve price.
The government is also auctioning a site in Ho Man Tin in Kowloon on June 8, as well as Mount Nicholson on the Peak on July 28.
Martin Lee, vice-chairman of Henderson Land Development and son of property tycoon Lee Shau-kee, paid a record price for a land site on the Peak, the city’s most expensive residential area. He paid HK$1.82 billion for the 53,350-sq-ft land site in a non-government land auction. According to auctioneer Jones Lang LaSalle, in terms of psf price at HK$68,200, the land plot was the city’s most expensive in an auction.