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)

 

SCMP’s lost mission

Alibaba COO Joe Tsai was one of the big names at RISE yesterday, but if you went hoping for an insight into a media title grappling with digital, you’d have been disappointed.

There was almost nothing that we didn’t hear at the time of the acquisition, rather confirming the view that the Alibaba crew are billionaire dilettantes not terribly interested in their new media toy.

They’ve been at it for 18 months but neither Tsai nor SCMP CEO Gary Liu could share a single number about page views, ad sales or investment.

Continue reading →

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

 

HK-Macau bridge foundations shift again

The foundations of a key part of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge have shifted again, the Highways Dept has revealed.

As many as 22 steel cylinders installed to stabilise reclaimed land for the bridge landing zone have shifted more than three metres, according to the Oriental Daily.

The Highways Dept and the contracting company have consolidated the cylinders – accounting for more than a quarter of the total – but have been unable to fix the source of the movement.

It is the latest in a series of engineering issues at the project, including shifting foundations, the collapse of a seawall and the falsification of tests on the concrete used in the bridge. Accidents have killed six workers and injured dozens, putting the project back by a year, experts have said.

The continual shifting of the foundations of the reclamation have prompted concerns that the project will be further delayed.

The 55-km bridge, originally intended to open last year, is currently scheduled to open by the end of 2017.

Climber airlifted to hospital after 8m fall on Lantau slope

A 66-year-old climber was airlifted from Lantau this afternoon after an eight-metre fall.

The man, surnamed Li, one of a party of 16, is believed to have lost his footing in climbing the challenging Tsing Lung Stream above San Shek Wan, Oriental Daily reported.

He was bleeding but conscious following the fall and was flown by Government Flying Service helicopter to the Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan.

The Tsing Lung climb takes about five hours and includes slopes of 70 to 90 degrees. A China Hong Kong Hiking Association expert told the paper the slope was is slippery and dangerous after rain and was not suitable for inexperienced climbers.

Photo: Lantau News file photo

Bus company and driver sued over fatal Tung Chung accident

The estate of a man fatally struck by a bus in Tung Chung last year is sueing the bus company and the driver.

A 38-year-old chef, Ng Konghung, was hit by a no. 34 mini-bus while crossing the road outside the Ngong Ping 360 cable station on January 24 last year.  The driver was given a suspended four-month sentence and fined $5000.

Ng’s estate filed in the High Court earlier this week, seeking damages from Kwoon Chung Motors – the owner of the New Lantao 1973 Bus Company – and the driver, Oriental Daily reported.

Tung Chung east reclamation to begin by year-end

Work on the Tung Chung East housing development will start by year-end and take six years to complete, according to a government tender document.

The Civil Engineering and Development Dept yesterday issued a tender for the reclamation of 130 hectares from Tung Chung Bay and the construction of 4.9km in seawalls and infrastructure.

It is the biggest part of what is officially known as the Tung Chung New Town Extension, which the government says is one of its most important land supply projects.

Under the project, the CEDD will build 49,400 new apartments and 877,000 sq metres of commercial space in developments in east and west Tung Chung in the next seven years.

Tung Chung east extension.  Source: CEDD

The new apartments will house approximately 144,000 people, CEDD says. Combined with other developments underway, they expect Tung Chung’s population will increase from approximately 80,000 today to 268,000.

The first residents are expected to move in in 2023.

The issue of the tender follows Legco’s approval of HK$20.5 billion for the first funding tranche last month.

A new MTR station is planned for Tung Chung East, but is not likely to be completed until 2026.

Carrie Lam to review land supply plans

New Chief Executive Carrie Lam has promised to reopen public debate over the government’s land supply policies.

She says she will set up an expert panel to hold large-scale discussions on future land supply, which she acknowledges has been a controversial topic, with public opposition to the building of homes in country parks and plans for massive sea reclamation off Lantau.

Lam said she would wait for the report of the Housing Society, which was commissioned by the previous government to examine the potential for building homes in the Tai Lam and Ma On Shan country parks.

She did not specifically refer to the East Lantau Metropolis (ELM), but it has certainly created heated debate. The plan to build a new CBD on 1000 ha of reclaimed land between Lantau and Hong Kong is the government’s biggest land supply project, sparking wide community opposition and claims that the consultation ignored public opinion.

The Leung government’s decision build on a greenfield site in Wang Chau rather than on a brownfield site owned by a rural major landowner is yet another controversy.

Photo: Scale model of Tung Chung after completion of extension project in 2023

Hong Kong, a cautionary tale

The fireworks are done, the barricades are down and the PLA has returned to barracks.

The weekend celebration of Hong Kong’s two decades under Beijing rule was marked by Xi Jinping himself, joining local dignitaries in the obligatory toasts to the ‘success’ of one-country two systems.

From their viewpoint it is a success – Hong Kong remains a source of wealth and under direct party control.

But most citizens would labour to identify any aspect of their lives that has improved. The city today is vastly more unequal, unfair, unhappy and unstable than in 1997. Once a freewheeling trading port with no interest in politics, political tension now infects even the smallest of local affairs. Continue reading →

Aust-China: The stupidest thing ever

China’s problematic role in Australia is finally get an airing. But the most astonishing thing of all is that Australia actually welcomes foreign political donations.

Only when I came across this story 18 months ago, with photos of vapid grinning politicians and their foreign-born sponsors, did it occur that this was possible.

Not even the wildest internationalist can conceive of a ‘democracy’ in which non-citizens get to vote with their wallets and where politicians adjust policy in pursuit of largess from foreign billionaires. Continue reading →