Lohas Park project draws 9 bids

The tender for the 13th and final phase of Lohas Park in Tseung Kwan O attracted just nine bids yesterday, compared to 35 expressions of interest received in September.

The site, which could potentially accommodate 2,550 flats, is valued at HK$8.51 billion to HK$15.47 billion, or HK$5,500 to HK$10,000 per buildable square foot.

Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016), CK Asset (1113), Henderson Land Development (0012), Wheelock Properties and Nan Fung are among the developers that have submitted bids.

Meanwhile, MTR Corporation (0066) will open the second phase of The Lohas - the first shopping mall at Lohas Park in Tseung Kwan O - on Sunday.

Hong Kong's property market sentiment remains volatile due to the pandemic, but about 10 percent of Hongkongers - among the highest levels on recorded over the past nine years - consider it a good time to purchase property, according to a survey by Citi Hong Kong.

The survey was conducted among over 500 Hong Kong respondents in September.

Over 40 percent of respondents expect home prices in Hong Kong to fall over the next 12 months, representing a larger percentage than that of the previous quarter, but smaller than in the first quarter of the year.

Regarding the impact of Covid-19 on property prices, respondents expect a median decline in property prices of 5 percent from the beginning to the end of the current year, believing that pandemic would knock 8 percent off property prices at most, a hit milder than the actual price reduction of 10 percent to 12 percent during the SARS epidemic in 2003.

Most people who became more interested in purchasing a property amid the pandemic were still adopting a "wait-and-see" attitude, expecting property prices to fall by another 20 percent before they would make a purchase.

Separately, Estate Agents Authority chairman William Leung Wing-cheung said he will step down at the end of this month.