HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s finance chief yesterday said the risk for people entering its property market was ‘higher now than ever’, as he announced new measures to tame runaway prices.

‘This situation is rather unusual: The property market trend is hard to predict,’ Financial Secretary John Tsang said. ‘I urge citizens to think twice before entering the property market, as the risk is higher now than ever.’

His warning came a day after Singapore’s National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan sounded the alert on surging home prices in the republic, as the Government announced a land sales programme for the second half of the year to increase the housing supply.

Mr Tsang said the Hong Kong government was working to control ever-rising prices amid growing disquiet among the seven million-strong population over the rocketing cost of owning a home.

‘The market situation requires us to boost efforts in two respects. One is increasing land supply, the second is strengthening risk management in bank systems,’ he said. ‘We will do both to ensure a healthy and stable development in the property market.’

The number of public housing units on offer between next month and August would be ‘substantially higher than the 3,000 units between April and June’.

Mr Tsang’s remarks came a day after an auction fell below record price estimates for a sprawling residential site, with analysts saying measures to cool the real estate market might be taking hold.

The property in the central Mid-Levels district sold for HK$11.65 billion (S$1.84 billion), below estimates of between HK$12 billion and HK$15.2 billion – and set a new city land auction record.

But another smaller plot in the city’s New Territories fetched a sale price at the higher end of estimates at the auction, suggesting officials still have work to do.

Two land sales earlier this year sold at the top of market expectations, or even surpassed pre-sale estimates.

Hong Kong has imposed new taxes and staged a series of land auctions in the past 11/2 years to boost supply and bring down property prices.

Yesterday, it lowered the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio for home mortgages.

Apartments valued at between HK$10 million and HK$12 million would have their LTV ratios lowered to 50 per cent.

LTV ratios for flats valued at HK$7 million to HK$10 million would be lowered to 60 per cent, while those for flats valued below HK$7 million would be lowered to 70 per cent, Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief executive Norman Chan told reporters.

The LTV is the percentage of a property’s value that is mortgaged.

Despite the measures, some existing properties are still fetching top-end prices, with the home of France’s top diplomat going for a whopping HK$580 million last month.

On Thursday, Singapore’s Mr Khaw said there were oversupply concerns in the local property market, and cautioned about rising prices, saying things could suddenly go very wrong.

‘With so much uncertainty, I must advise investors and upgraders to bear these considerations in mind when they go to showrooms and contemplate if they should sign up,’ he said in a blog on the real estate market.

He cited a property analyst who recently said some investors seemed ‘blissfully ignorant’ of the huge supply coming onstream from 2013. Singapore will launch 19 confirmed sites and 24 reserve sites in the second half of the year, which means a potential yield of about 14,200 private residential units, slightly less than the supply in the first half.

Source: Straits Times, 11th Jun 2011

Home sales down 83% last weekend from the previous week, according to Centaline Property Agency

CHIEF Executive Donald Tsang said yesterday that the government’s latest measures to curb property price speculation have shown some success.

‘The preliminary response from the market shows that the measures have exerted a certain level of impact,’ he said at the 2010 Boao Youth Forum in Hong Kong. ‘We will closely monitor the situation and launch further measures if necessary.’

Last week, the city’s government announced additional stamp duties on short-term property holdings and higher downpayments for some mortgages to curb speculation after prices gained more than 50 per cent since the start of 2009.

Home sales fell 83 per cent last weekend from the previous week, according to data from Centaline Property Agency Ltd.

‘The government is worried that banks’ asset quality will be affected if there is a sudden turnaround in the market,’ Wong Leung-Sing, associate director of research at Centaline, said.

He added that prices may fall by 5 per cent in the next three months and rebound after investors ‘have adapted to the new rules and secured necessary funding to buy property’.

The measures will have a ‘significant short-term impact’, Credit Suisse Group analysts said on Nov 22, with transactions declining 40 per cent by year end.

Homes sold within six months of purchase will incur an extra 15 per cent stamp duty. Properties resold between six months and 12 months will incur a 10 per cent stamp duty, while those resold between 12 months and 24 months will be charged 5 per cent, Financial Secretary John Tsang said on Nov 19.

The new stamp duty will come on top of the current stamp duty of up to 4.25 per cent, which varies according to the transaction value of the home purchased.

Downpayments for homes costing HK$12 million (S$2.04 million) or more will rise to 50 per cent from 40 per cent. Downpayments for homes costing between HK$8 million and HK$12 million will be increased to 40 per cent from 30 per cent, Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief executive Norman Chan said on Nov 19.

The maximum loan to value for non-owner occupied residential properties will be lowered to 50 per cent, he added.

New mortgage loans drawn down during October fell 26 per cent to HK$25.1 billion from a month earlier, according to data published by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority yesterday.

New housing loans approved in October fell to HK$30.8 billion, 2.2 per cent lower than in September, the regulator said. — Bloomberg

Source: Business Times, 27 Nov 2010

(HONG KONG) A Hong Kong Catholic priest has called the city’s richest man Li Ka-shing a ‘devil’, weeks after the tycoon made headlines by pledging to give millions to the poor.

Thomas Law made the remarks after a weekend Halloween party, saying that Hong Kong’s property developers – not spirits – are the real demons, local media reported. Father Law made the remarks in connection with growing criticism that property companies are fudging the size of residential apartment units in the densely populated city of seven million people.

‘If Li Ka-shing were to come tonight, that would sure scare the heck out of us,’ the outspoken priest told reporters after the party. ‘(He) is the true devil that kills people,’ Father Law added. Father Law could not be immediately reached for comment. The South China Morning Post yesterday quoted Father Law as saying: ‘I have nothing to say about the incident . . . But I only hope there will be more angels in Hong Kong.’

Local media reports have suggested that Mr Li – whose companies own a wide swathe of interests, including property – might sue over the ‘devil’ comments. But a spokeswoman for Mr Li’s Cheung Kong (Holdings) told AFP yesterday: ‘We have not pressured the church and we do not intend to sue (them).’

In a letter to the city’s Catholic Diocese, the conglomerate’s head of corporate strategy, Gerald Ma, expressed his ‘disappointment and helplessness’ over Father Law’s comments. ‘We of course respect freedom of speech,’ Mr Ma wrote. ‘But all responsible people, regardless of their profession and beliefs should be cautious with their words and deeds.

‘Like the Catholic church, Mr Li is passionate in his support for social and charity work. We do not understand why he is subjected to this unfair humiliation,’ Mr Ma added.

Vicar-general Michael Yeung – the second most senior official in Hong Kong’s Catholic church – said that the church has never had negative feelings towards Hong Kong’s rich, adding that the priest should take personal responsibility for his remarks, the Singtao daily reported yesterday.

Last month, Mr Li pledged to donate HK$500 million (S$83.1 million) to a government fund established to help the poor amid concern over a growing income gap. — AFP

Source: Business Times, 4 Nov 2010

Location, uncertainty over policies cited for poor response at govt land auction
(HONG KONG) Hong Kong sold a piece of land yesterday at an unexpectedly low price as developers were less keen on the site due to its location and uncertainties over whether the government will announce more tightening policies.

The auction is the first after Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang unveiled new measures in October to cool the red-hot property market, including raising housing supply and restricting immigration based on real estate investments.

The weak response from developers was in stark contrast to previous auctions this year, when tranches of land were sold at higher-than-expected prices after furious rounds of bidding.

‘It’s the location because there is one side facing a cemetery and the other side facing a secondary school, which means that it will be too noisy for the residents,’ said Yu Kam-hung, senior managing director for valuation in greater China at CB Richard Ellis.

‘One more uncertainty is that because there is a new policy about building plans,’ Mr Yu said.

The government also announced earlier this year that as of April next year, developers would have to submit building plans in which the gross floor area concession would have to be reduced to 10 per cent from 20 per cent, yielding a bigger net floor area.

Developers in Hong Kong usually quote apartment prices in gross floor area, which includes the actual space of the apartment and other common areas, such as corridors and club houses.

‘The new rules have some impact (on the auction result),’ Ng Shun-mo, Chinachem’s sales director, told reporters after the land auction. Chinachem is an unlisted Hong Kong-based developer.

Chinachem said the project will involve an investment of HK$3 billion (S$499 million), with four 10-storey blocks set to be built on the site supplying 160 units.

The government sold the site in Kowloon Tong with an area of 75,845 square feet and offering a gross floor area of 227,529 square feet at HK$2.17 billion, below a poll forecast of HK$2.78 billion.

The auction came during trading hours. The Hong Kong property sub-index briefly gave up some gains right after the auction, but powered ahead to end up 3.43 per cent, outperforming the Hang Seng Index’s 2.0 per cent gain yesterday.

Hong Kong’s housing market is overheating, prompting the government to unveil a series of measures to curb fast-rising prices, including raising the stamp duty of luxury apartments to 4.25 per cent from 3.75 per cent.

Housing prices have risen 50 per cent since the start of last year and are fast reaching 1997 highs on brisk demand from mainland Chinese investors and low mortgage rates as Hong Kong tracks US monetary policy because of the dollar peg. — Reuters

Source: Business Times, 4 Nov 2010

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s luxury home prices have topped their pre-Asian crisis peak, data showed yesterday, frustrating government efforts to cool one of the world’s most expensive real estate markets.

Average prices for homes of at least 100 sq m are now 14 per cent above what they fetched before the 1997 downturn, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said.

The data comes amid fears of a property bubble in the densely populated city of seven million and has led some lawmakers to call for a resumption of a subsidised housing scheme due to concerns about the city’s growing income gap.

Government figures show average luxury home prices in August were HK$142,249 (S$23,755) per square metre, compared with around HK$122,500 before the 1997 crisis. Overall, home prices plunged about 60 per cent during the Asian crisis.

However, the cost of a home has soared more than 45 per cent from the trough two years ago, prompting the government to hold about half a dozen sales in the past year to boost supply. The sales sparked huge interest, with tycoon Li Ka Shing snapping up two prime residential sites for about HK$7.61 billion in August.

Earlier this month, Chief Executive Donald Tsang outlined fresh measures to cool the property market, including halting automatic residency for rich property buyers. The move is expected to affect wealthy mainland Chinese investors.

Rising non-luxury flat prices have put home ownership out of reach for many residents. Hong Kong has surpassed New York, Paris and Tokyo as one of the most expensive cities in the world in which to buy a flat, said the Global Property Guide website.

It added that Hong Kong is the third most expensive city to buy a 120 sq m apartment, with Monaco as the most expensive and London second.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Source: Straits Times, 28 Oct 2010

(HONG KONG) Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd and Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd, Hong Kong’s two largest developers, sold more than HK$11 billion (S$1.9 billion) worth of new properties over the National Day holiday weekend.

Sun Hung Kai, the world’s biggest developer by market value, sold 132 houses at its Valais project in the Sheung Shui district over the three-day holiday, generating revenue of close to HK$4 billion, it said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday. Cheung Kong, controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing, sold all 1,143 apartments at Oceanaire in the Ma On Shan district, four days after the project was launched, for more than HK$7.6 billion, sales director Francis Wong told reporters at a briefing on Sunday.

The Hong Kong government has since October last year announced a series of measures to rein in home prices that have surged 46 per cent since the beginning of 2009 on the back of record low mortgage rates and an influx of mainland Chinese buyers.

Oceanaire is the biggest new project by unit number put up for sale by Hong Kong developers this year, according to Centaline Property Agency Ltd.

‘The sales were driven by pent-up demand and the developer’s conservative pricing strategy,’ said Wong Leung-sing, a research director at Centaline, Hong Kong’s biggest privately held real estate agent, about Oceanaire. ‘It doesn’t mean the market is getting hot again. The government has made it clear it’s ready to launch more new measures to curb prices again and buyers are aware of that.’

The average HK$6,200 per square foot set by Cheung Kong for the project is very close to prices of similar developments in the area, Mr Wong said. Developers normally set prices of new projects at least 20 per cent above market prices ‘when they’re bullish about the market’, he noted.

Hong Kong’s government on Aug 13 raised down-payment ratios and said it will make more land available for developers amid concerns housing is becoming unaffordable. Financial Secretary John Tsang said last month the government is closely monitoring the market and may announce more measures if prices keep going up.

About 30 per cent of the buyers at the Valais project, located about a three-minute drive from the Huanggang border checkpoint, are from mainland China, Sun Hung Kai said in its statement. Sizes of most units range from about 1,800 square feet to 2,200 square feet, according to its website.

‘It’s an entirely different market from your regular projects in the city and they are quite immune from government policies,’ said Centaline’s Mr Wong. ‘It’s luxury and it’s close to the border. There’ll always be ample buyers for these kinds of projects as long as mainland Chinese keep coming to Hong Kong.’ – Bloomberg

Source: Business Times, 5 Oct 2010

Rental growth at ICC to outpace that of other Kowloon areas due to tight supply

(HONG KONG) Rents at the International Commerce Centre (ICC), Hong Kong’s tallest building, may rise 20 per cent to 30 per cent over the next two years, outpacing growth in areas outside the Central district, according to property brokers.

The first tenants including Morgan Stanley that signed leases for the ICC in the Tsim Sha Tsui district on the Kowloon Peninsula almost three years ago ‘have probably saved millions’ as monthly rents there have since risen 83 per cent to about HK$55 (S$9.5) per square foot, said Xavier Wong, director and head of research for Greater China at Knight Frank LLP.

Hong Kong’s Central district commands the world’s second-highest office space occupancy cost, behind London’s West End, CB Richard Ellis said in a May report. Prime office rents in the city have jumped 16 per cent in the last year as financial companies such as HSBC Holdings plc and Barclays plc resumed expanding amid an economic recovery.

‘The benefits for the banks who moved to ICC are more than just savings in rental,’ said Hong Kong- based Mr Wong. ‘They have got more space to expand if there are such needs in the future. In Central there is no space left even if you can afford the high rent.’

Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG are among financial services companies that moved headquarters away from Central into the 118-storey ICC between 2007 and 2008 as rents in the city’s banking and financial hub surged to record highs before the global credit crisis struck. Morgan Stanley is leasing 16 floors and Credit Suisse 12, according to the banks.

The city’s jobless rate fell to 4.3 per cent, the lowest level in 19 months, for the three months ended July 31. Hong Kong’s number of financial professionals rose to a record 37,694 by July, eclipsing the previous high reached in November 2008, the Securities and Futures Commission said in August.

Morgan Stanley was the first ICC tenant to announce its move in 2007 into the building built and operated by Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd, Hong Kong’s biggest developer.

The building, atop the Kowloon subway station and about 20 minutes by train to the airport and 10 minutes to Central, also houses Deutsche Bank AG, which has taken 12 floors, and ING Groep NV.

‘Many of these banks have signed on for years,’ said Gary Fok, director of commercial transaction services in Hong Kong at New York-based property broker Cushman & Wakefield Inc. ‘They’ll never disclose the exact terms of their leases, but in hindsight they’ve gotten themselves some very good deals. Taking into account all the other concessions, they’re likely paying under HK$30 a square foot.’

The vacancy rate at the building, which has about 2.5 million square feet of office space, is currently about 5.5 per cent, said Mr Fok.

Rents in prime office buildings in Central, which includes ICC and Cheung Kong Centre, were up 25 per cent in August from a year earlier to HK$141.2 a square foot, London-based Knight Frank said in a report this week.

Rents in some parts of the district were pushed to more than HK$200 per square foot in the third quarter of 2008, before declining as companies downsized following the credit crisis.

Office rents in Tsim Sha Tsui, excluding the ICC, rose 9.1 per cent to HK$34.40, while those in Causeway Bay, home to the world’s third-most expensive retail district, increased 20 per cent to HK$43.20, according to Knight Frank.

Rental growth at ICC will outpace that of other areas on the Kowloon Peninsula because of tight supply, said Mr Wong.

New World Development Ltd closed its New World Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui in the first quarter to redevelop it into a 63-storey office and shopping mall complex. The project will take at least five years to complete, the company said in February.

‘ICC’s growth will be more in line with top buildings in Central,’ said Wong ‘Those are its real competitors. There’s basically no new supply coming into the area.’

Average rents in Kowloon East, where commercial banks such as Standard Chartered plc and Bank of East Asia Ltd house most of their back office staff, rose 18 per cent in August from a year earlier to HK$22.40 a square foot, Knight Frank said in a report.

Developers will add an estimated 1.8 million square feet of prime office space in the next three years in the area, according to Mr Wong. — Bloomberg

Source: Business Times, 16 Sep 2010

(HONG KONG) Risks in Hong Kong’s property market may exceed those in 1997 if falling prices coincide with rising interest rates, Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief executive Norman Chan said.

The property market has been rising ‘quite rapidly’ and may collapse if prices keep going up, the Ming Pao Daily cited Mr Chan as saying in an interview. Mr Chan’s comments were confirmed by HKMA spokeswoman Anissa Wong.

Mr Chan joined the city’s Financial Secretary John Tsang in cautioning about an asset bubble. The government has raised down payment ratios and pledged to increase land supply to rein in home prices that have surged about 47 per cent since the start of 2009, fuelled by record-low mortgage rates and an influx of wealthy mainland Chinese buyers.

‘The way home prices have been going up is definitely not healthy,’ said Francis Lun, general manager at Fulbright Securities. ‘The question we’re all asking is whether government officials would take more drastic measures to address this issue. What they’ve done so far are merely cosmetic or plain rhetoric.’

Mortgage rates in Hong Kong have been at about a 20-year low as the city’s interest rates normally follow those in the US because the currency is pegged to the US dollar.

Homes prices also may be vulnerable to credit tightening measures in China that can prompt investors to pull funds away from the property market, Ming Pao quoted Mr Chan as saying.

An estimated 20 per cent of buyers of new apartments in Hong Kong are from mainland China, according to Centaline Property Agency, one of the city’s biggest agencies.

The Hang Seng Property Index, which tracks the city’s seven biggest developers, was up 1.6 per cent at the close of trading in Hong Kong, bringing its gain this year to 1.8 per cent.

By some measures, prices are now on par with 1997, the height of a previous bubble that was followed by a six-year slump that sent values more than 50 per cent lower. Hong Kong home prices rose to the highest since December 1997 in the week ended Sept 5, according to an index compiled by Centaline.

The index has risen 1.2 per cent in the three weeks since the government on Aug 13 raised down payments for apartments costing HK$12 million (S$2.1 million) or more to 40 per cent from 30 per cent, and Mr Tsang said the gain in home prices was ‘rare’. They had risen about 13 per cent since the beginning of the year before the measures were announced.

‘The government will at some point introduce more radical measures,’ said Steve Tse, a research manager at BEA Union Investment Management.

‘What’s holding them back now is that they don’t want home prices to collapse like 1997. They want them to come down gradually,’ he added.

Hong Kong property prices peaked in 1997 as the city slid into its first recession in more than a decade after the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

Transactions of used apartments at 10 of Hong Kong’s biggest private developments fell for two straight weeks before recovering last week, Centaline said on Sunday.

The government is closely monitoring the property market and may introduce further measures to contain prices if they continue to escalate, Ming Pao reported on Sept 1, citing Mr Tsang.

A 26-year-old government-built apartment near one of Hong Kong’s busiest shopping areas sold in July for a record price per square foot.

The 420-square-foot home in the Sham Shui Po area of the Kowloon district was bought for HK$1.98 million, or HK$4,714 per square foot, Buggle Lau, chief analyst at property broker Midland Holdings, said last week citing Land Registry records. — Bloomberg

Source: Business Times, 14 Sep 2010

(HONG KONG) Transactions of used apartments at 10 of Hong Kong’s biggest private developments fell for a second straight week as sellers held out for their listed asking prices after consecutive government land auctions that beat estimates.

Thirty-six deals were recorded in the week ended on Sunday in 10 housing complexes including Taikoo Shing in the Island East and Mei Foo Sun Chuen on the Kowloon Peninsula, compared with 40 transactions a week earlier, Centaline Property Agency said in a statement on Sunday.

The government on Aug 13 raised downpayment ratios and said it will increase land supply amid concerns housing is becoming unaffordable after a 45 per cent surge since the beginning of 2009.

Kerry Properties Ltd paid HK$1.29 billion (S$223 million) for a plot in the Kowloon Tong district, setting a per-square-foot record for Kowloon.

‘The government measures seem to have cooled down the market a bit as they have made speculation costlier,’ said Jonas Kan, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research.

‘We’re expecting transactions to stay flat for a while. Anything further down the road will depend on what their next round of announcements is going to be.’

The government is closely monitoring the property market and may introduce further measures to contain prices if they continue to escalate, Ming Pao on Sept 1 quoted Financial Secretary John Tsang as saying in written replies to questions from the newspaper.

The city’s developers will build about 61,000 apartments in the next three years as part of the plan to boost supply, Mr Tsang said in Beijing on Sunday according to a government transcript.

The Hang Seng Property Index that tracks the performance of seven developers in the city rose 2.8 per cent at the 4pm local close here, advancing for a third consecutive day.

Hong Kong’s home sales rose 33 per cent by value in August to the highest in almost three years as the number of transactions completed in the first half of the month outweighed the second-half’s decline, the Land Registry said on Sept 2.

‘There’s a mixture of good and bad news,’ said Louis Chan, managing director for residential property at Centaline. ‘The market will still be looking for direction in September.’

Hong Kong will next month sell a site adjacent to the one Kerry Properties bought on Aug 31 for HK$16,587 per square foot.

The plot may fetch as much as HK$17,000 per square foot, according to an estimate from real estate broker Midland Holdings Ltd, and the sites can be combined for a bigger project with a higher profit margin.

Hong Kong also will sell two residential sites in the Fanling and Chai Wan districts on Sept 29.

Hong Kong’s home prices have surged about 45 per cent since the beginning of 2009 on record low mortgage rates and the influx of wealthy mainland Chinese buyers, according to Centaline. — Bloomberg

Source: Business Times, 7 Sep 2010

(HONG KONG) Agricultural Bank of China said yesterday that it has temporarily suspended property market loans to counter a surge in real-estate lending, but insisted the country’s property sector was ‘healthy’.

AgBank stopped giving mortgages between Aug 24 and Aug 31 ‘to ensure an even distribution of loans and to avoid a surge at the end of the month’, said Zhang Yun, AgBank’s vice-chairman.

‘But (AgBank) has no intention to stop loans to the property market,’ he told reporters at a press conference in Hong Kong to discus the company’s first-half financial results. ‘It is a temporary measure taken by (AgBank) according to its own needs.’

Chairman Xiang Junbo said government policy measures to cool overheating in China’s real estate market would help prevent ‘drastic fluctuations’, adding that the Chinese property sector is ‘developing and healthy’.

AgBank has the lowest property loan balance among its rival lenders, Mr Xiang added.

On Friday, AgBank – which this month claimed title to the world’s biggest initial public offering in a US$22.1 billion sale – said profit in the first six months rose 40.2 per cent to 45.9 billion yuan (S$9.1 billion), from 32.7 billion yuan last year.

AgBank shares closed almost 2 per cent down at HK$3.47 on the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday.

Mr Xiang credited growth in the company’s rural lending business and lower bad-loan rates for the rosy half-year figures, but critics have speculated that AgBank’s rural-lending mandate would dent its performance as a public company.

In recent months, Chinese authorities have tightened restrictions nationwide on advance sales of new developments, introduced curbs on loans for third home purchases and raised minimum downpayments for second homes.

Chinese property prices in July rose at a slower pace, suggesting policy measures to cool the sector may be having an impact.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that two of China’s biggest state-run banks – Bank of China and China Construction Bank – have cut back lending to local government investment vehicles whose borrowing has raised concerns over a bad-loan crisis. — AFP

Source: Business Times, 31 Aug 2010