Category: property
Calls to investigate ‘suspicious’ Mui Wo rural land deals
A Mui Wo village leader was directly involved in six village house transactions and connected to another three in the space of two years, prompting calls for the transactions to be investigated.
Civic Party leader and barrister Tanya Chan said while there was no clear evidence that small house rights were being sold, the land sales were “suspicious” and should be scrutinised.
Eddie Tse from the Save Lantau Alliance (SLA) said the transactions by Luk Tei Tong village representative Lee Kwok Keung and his wife were “intriguing,” especially when they involved residents from other villages. He called for the Lands Department and the Town Planning Board (TPB) to probe the deals.
According to the Ming Pao newspaper and the SLA, Lee and his wife sold land that was used to build six indigenous houses, while another three are applying for approval to build.
One plot of land, lot 288, was broken up and sold to six different buyers, including five from other villages.
Land sale contracts show Lee bought the lot for just under HK$2.78 million in 2011, and then selling it as six separate plots over 2012-2013 for HK$2.24 million – HK$540,000 less than he had paid. Every transaction was authorised by the same lawyer, Lee Kwok Yung.
Subsequently, a number of applications were made to build ding houses on those sites, which were approved in 2015 and 2016.
Lot 288
The six small houses, many with the same external appearance, have now been nearly completed.
Five of the buyers have addresses outside Mui Wo, including one in Australia, land sale documents show. Ming Pao reporters could not locate any of the buyers.
Lee’s wife, Fanny Mok Suk Fun, was involved in buying and selling another plot of land on the edge of Luk Tei Tong, lot 308. She had acquired it for HK$700,000 in 1999, split it into three pieces, and sold them off in 2004.
Then on the same day in 2008 Mok and a Ms Au-yeung Yuet-lan repurchased two of the lots at exactly the same price (HK$198,000). In 2014 the two lots were sold separately for the same price (HK$208,000) to two people now applying for ding approval. Both transactions were also executed by Lee Kwok Yung.
The third piece of land is also subject to a TPB application for building approval.
Speaking to a Ming Pao reporter by phone, Lee confirmed he had sold the land to residents of other villages and as village representative had dealt with the six small house applications.
However, when asked about his wife’s role the call dropped out. Reporters were unable to re-establish contact, and text messages were not returned.
The number of cross-village ding transactions in Lantau has soared since then-CE CY Leung announced ambitious Lantau development plans in his 2014 policy address.
In the two years prior, just three applications had been filed. But after the development plans were unveiled, the number of applications spiked to six in 2014, 14 in 2015 and six in 2016.
Under the Basic Law, indigenous male villagers are given the right to build a house on rural village land, but the system is open to abuse and, outside the privileged community of indigenous villagers, dissatisfaction is high.
Two years ago Sha Tin villagers were jailed for selling off ‘ding’ rights to a developer, and a 2015 Civic Exchange survey found that nearly two-thirds want to see the policy change.
However, successive chief executives, who hold power with support of rural bodies, have shown no interest in reform.
Cheung Sha site sells for $210m, smashing record and expectations
A developer has paid a record HK$210 million for a Cheung Sha residential site, 50% above the forecast price.
The price equates to up to HK$19,667 per sq ft, beating the previous highest price in the district of HK$15,100, paid in 2013.
The Lands Department announced yesterday that a Hong Kong firm, Golden United Development, a unit of Leap Up Investments, had won the tender for the coastal site from eight other bidders. One of Leap Up’s directors is by Chan Sze-ming, the son of the vice-chairman of listed firm Agile Property Holdings, the Oriental Daily reports.
The site, Lot 763 in DD 332, with total area of 2,480 sq m, had been expected to fetch HK$110 to HK$140 million, or HK$10,000-13,000 per square foot.
By contrast a neighbouring residential site went for just $7,996 per sq ft three years ago.
The rise in valuations and the strong interest from bidders including Albert Yeung’s Emperor Group, Sino Land and Wheelock Properties underline how hot the local market has become for high-end homes.
Victor K.F. Lai, managing director, of Centaline Property Agency, said despite the higher than expected price, it was a good one for the developer.
With the coming of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, Cheung Sha has become an attractive site for low-density luxury development, he says.
“The area is sitting on appreciation potential,” he told Economic Times.
Windfall: Investor pockets 30% profit on Tung Chung parking space
As Hong Kong’s property price spiral continues, a Tung Chung investor has pocketed a cool HK$290,000 gain from the sale of a parking space.
The ground floor parking space in Tung Chung Crescent, purchased in January for HK$1.04 million, sold again in July for HK$1.3 million.
But it’s not even the most expensive parking space in the private housing estate.
According to Centaline Tung Chung deputy regional manager Ivan Chan, another parking spot sold for HK$1.398 million – the most expensive in Tung Chung. Two other spaces sold for HK$1.328 million and HK$1.39 million, Ming Pao reported.
Tung Chung Crescent parking spots are popular for property investors because the number is limited and while only tenants can use them, anyone can buy or sell them.
In nearby Century Link a scheduled auction last Sunday of parking spaces was delayed because of a typhoon warning, but still received bids of HK$1.23-$1.3 million.
Mui Wo’s coming population boom
Around this time next year Mui Wo’s population will undergo a sharp expansion with the completion of two new public housing projects.
The new estates, Ngan Ho Court and Ngan Wai Court, will provide 700 new apartments, enough to support approximately 2000 new residents. That means the current Mui Wo population of around 5,500 will increase by 35% or more.
The bigger of the two will be Ngan Ho Court, at the end of Ngan Kwong Wan Road. It comprises two blocks, one 18 and the other 16 storeys, altogether containing 529 apartments.
Ngan Wai Court, which faces the rear of the Mui Wo clinic on Ngan Kwong Wan Rd, is a single 16-storey block with 170 homes.
Q: Why Mui Wo?
The Hong Kong government has built subsidised public housing since the 1950s. Today, 46% of the population lives either in public rental or subsidised sale flats. These new apartments are built under the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS), one of several different programmes aimed at increasing the supply of affordable housing. Dozens of HOS estates provide housing for hundreds of thousands of people, including in Yu Tung, Tung Chung, and Lung Hin, Tai O.
Q: Why this part of Mui Wo?
Most land in Mui Wo belongs to indigenous villagers whose privileges are enshrined in the Basic Law. Ngan Ho is officially zoned in Mui Wo Fringe, while Ngan Wai falls into no zoning plan at all. No indigenous villager in Mui Wo is giving up any of his entitlements to alleviate the housing crisis.
Q: When will people start moving in?
According to the builders, both housing estates will be completed by August 31 2018. New residents will start moving in after the date.
Ngan Ho Court
Q: Are these units to be rented or for sale?
For sale. The sale is carried out by ballot and according to certain eligibility criteria.
Q: These aren’t the first public housing projects in Mui Wo, right?
They’re not even the first on Ngan Kwong Wan Rd. The Ngan Wan Estate, built in 1988, has 400 rental apartments in four tower blocks, with a population capped at 1,300.
Q: That’s a lot of extra people moving in. Can our transport services cope?
We don’t know. The New Lantao Bus Company is considering running double-decker buses to Mui Wo. It says details of its preparations will be contained in a five-year plan for the Transport Department.
New World First Ferry said, in response to a query from Bob Bunker of Living Islands Movement:
“We are collecting the data from related governmental departments in order for us to review and devise the overall sailing arrangements in the following years. Please be assured that we will closely monitor the change of passenger demand and provide appropriate sailing arrangements.”
We will post the Transport Department’s reply when it arrives.
MTR to build another 14,000 apartments on Tung Chung Bay
Yet another North Lantau Coast development is on the drawing board.
The latest is MTR Corp’s residential and retail project at Siu Ho Wan, about three kilometres east of Tung Chung.
The 30ha development, on top of the MTR rail depot, will create 14,000 apartments and 320,000 square feet of shopping malls, Economic Times reports.
Much of it will be low-rise, with altogether 108 buildings planned to house 38,000 people. The development will also include three schools, four kindergartens and a public transport interchange.
More than a quarter of the residential buildings will be built along the coast, looking out across Tung Chung Bay. More than 40 low-rise residential blocks will face North Lantau Highway.
However, the project is some time away. Construction is not expected to start until 2023 when work on the low-rise homes is due to get underway, and initial occupants are scheduled to move in in 2026. The final stage of the three-part project is forecast to complete in 2038.
The development will also include a new MTR station, due to start construction in 2016 and be completed in 2026. It is the third new station planned for the area, along with Tung Chung West and Tung Chung East.
Silver Waves Court sold: another building project headed for Mui Wo
Another major building project is on the way for Mui Wo with the sale of beachfront housing estate Silver Waves Court.
The 20-year-old estate is to be rebuilt into 18 two-storey detached houses, each with a separate garden.
But property firm Colliers International, which arranged the sale, can’t reveal who acquired the property, the price they paid, or when building work will start.
The Buildings Dept has approved redevelopment of the 31,721 square feet site. Currently it has 16 separate homes with private gardens and an outdoor pool. It is fully-leased.
Suddenly, a rush for Lantau luxury homes
Keen to drop HK$60m on a South Lantau home? You may have to hurry – they’re suddenly in demand.
Only one home is left at the Botanica Bay development in Cheung Sha, while at nearby Whitesands seven have been snapped up in the last three months.
The latest sale is a Botanica Bay house that sold for HK$63.8 million, or HK$17,128 psf, earlier this week. It has 3,725 sq ft in usable floor area, making it the smallest in the 16-home development, though it also comes with a 1,267 sq ft garden.
It was the 15th home to be sold since Botanica Bay, built by Sino Land, went on the market in early 2015. In one of the early transactions, the biggest home in the development was sold for HK$209 million – an outlying islands record.
Down the road at South Lantau’s other high-end development, Whitesands, sales were sluggish until recently. The Swire Group project next to the San Shek Wan roundabout was completed in late 2015, but up to April only two of the 28 units had been sold.
But since then seven have been sold at prices ranging from HK$34 million to HK$60 million. The latest was on July 10, when a 2,355 sq ft home with a 1,393 sq ft garden sold for HK$38.4 million, or HK$16,300 psf.
It’s not clear why the recent rush, although Whitesands dropped its prices by nearly a third late last year. One factor cited is the opening of the Hong Kong-Macau bridge, possibly as early as late 2017.
These almost certainly won’t be the last luxury home projects on South Lantau. Mui Wo residential estate Silver Waves Court is set to be redeveloped into high-end homes.
Botanica Bay home leased for $136,000 a month
Lantau’s property market has just gone to another level, with the leasing of a Botanica Bay property for HK$136,000 per month.
The home, the first to be leased in the Cheung Sha luxury strip, has a usable area of 4,191 sq ft, four bedrooms, four bathrooms and a 2,474 sq ft garden.
According to Centaline Property, the tenants are foreigners setting up factories in the mainland. They often have to travel across the border and are hoping to take advantage of the completion of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, expected late this year, Apple Daily reports.
The owner, who paid HK$99.23 million for the property in 2015, is paying $25,000 per month in management fees.
It’s not the first record set by Botanica Bay. Two years ago a buyer paid HK$209 million for a new home – a record for the Outlying Islands.
Above: Botanica Bay property (file photo)
Cheung Sha plot tipped to sell for $140m
The rampup in local property prices shows no sign of easing, with a plot of government land at Cheung Sha predicted to fetch up to 60% more than a similar site three years ago.
James K.T. Cheung, executive director of Centaline Surveyors, said that with its low plot ratio and full sea view, the 26,695 sq ft site, opposite the Cheung Sha police base, was ideal for small-scale luxury development, Ming Pao reports.
He forecast the developer would pay between HK$110 million and HK$140 million, or HK$10,000-13,000 per square foot – a sharp rise on the $7996 paid for the neighbouring site three years ago. The site carries a maximum gross floor area of 10,678 sq ft.
The tender, the first under the Lam government, will run from July 14 to August 11, the Lands Department announced Friday.
The site nearby (above) was sold to a mainland-based developer in December 2014 for HK$290 million.
For sale
Govt to sell Cheung Sha site for new homes
The Cheung Sha strip near the San Shek Wan roundabout looks set to grow further as a prime residential property location.
A 2480 sq metre site just 200 metres west of the roundabout will go on the block as part of the government land sales in the next quarter, Development Secretary Eric Ma announced Friday.
The site, Lot 763 in DD 332, is on the coastal side of South Lantau Road, opposite the police station. It is near a 1440 sq metre residential site sold four years ago, now an upmarket residence.
The location, just ten minutes from Tung Chung and Mui Wo, offers the attraction of the island lifestyle with relatively fast access to the rest of Hong Kong.
Much larger slices of land at Tai Po, Cheung Sha Wan will also go on sale, Ma said. Altogether they will supply 1350 new homes.
New homes built after the last land sale
Lantau Confidential 