Far East Consortium International's (0035) managing director Chris Hoong Cheong-thard expects Hong Kong's property prices will keep rising, driven by the strong demand, and the company will continue to sell its non-core assets including small parking lots and hotels not directly managed under its own brand.
Despite the government's proposals to increase land and residential supply, Hoong believes no substantial changes will be seen in the next three to four years. And as for the medium term, he thinks that the inflation-led increase in construction material prices will be reflected in property prices.
Analysts had said the HK$7.96 billion Kai Tai property that the company bought in partnership with New World Development (0017) from Kaisa Group (1638) was too expensive, but Hoong said some of the work on the project had already been completed, which would save them lot in terms of cost and time.
The residential project is expected to be completed in 2024 or in 2025, he added.
The developer's interim net profit more than tripled to HK$1.07 billion from a year ago while the interim dividend declared remained unchanged at 4 HK cents. The profit surge was mainly due to the 115 million (HK$1.2 billion) disposal of the Dorsett City London and revaluation gains attributable to Hong Kong and Singapore properties. Revenue for the six months ended September slightly rose to HK$3.12 billion, of which hotel operations income increased by 81.2 percent year-on-year to HK$658.56 million.
Chris Hoong
