MTR Corporation's (0066) proposal to build 15,000 flats atop Siu Ho Wan Depot in Lantau Island is expected to receive the green light from the Town Planning Board today (Friday).

The 300,658 square meter site will be developed in four phases. Phases one to three comprises of 56 residential buildings with a total gross floor area of 1.04 million sq m, the application showed.

The three phases will provide a total of 10,720 private flats and 4,280 public flats. The remaining site portion, or phase four, will be reserved for future expansion to provide about 6,200 public housing flats, mainly subsidized sale flats.

Also expected to win a nod from the board today is Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016), who proposed to boost the number of flats of its renewal residential project at Sha Tsui Road in Tsuen Wan by 283, or 27 percent, to 1,330.

Meanwhile, in the firsthand property market, Henderson Land Development's (0012) new project in Cheung Sha Wan which offers 337 units was named The Harmonie.

The presale consent of the project was granted recently and the first price list may be released right after January 1 at the earliest, said Thomas Lam Tat-man, a general manager of the sales department.

Caine Hill, Henderson’s other project in Sheung Wan, has launched another batch of 18 units after selling 26, or nearly 93 percent of the 28 units offered in the second round of sales.

The latest batch, including three studio homes and 15 one bedroom homes, are priced from HK$5.91 million to HK$9.06 million after discounts, Henderson said.

Separately, Sino Land (0083) said it sold 1,740 flats this year, of which Grand Victoria contributed 658 flats. The developer expected to launch four new projects next year.

In other news, the vacancies of Central offices have dropped for six months in a row to 7.4 percent in November on growing demand, a report by real estate consultancy Knight Frank showed.

Siu Ho Wan

Plan to build 15,000 flats at Siu Ho Wan awaits green light