Special home loans offered to attract overseas talent

Sino Land (0083) will offer special mortgages for workers who have come to Hong Kong via the city's various talent schemes and are looking to buy a home.

Sales of unsold flats at One Soho in Mong Kok - jointly developed by Sino Land, Chuang's Consortium (0367) and the Urban Renewal Authority - will be relaunched as early as this month, with the developer offering special plans for prospective buyers who have come under the various talent and professional schemes.

A new price list could be unveiled around the middle of the month.

Sino Land says 191 flats have so far been sold at One Soho for a total HK$1.36 billion and at an average price of HK$23,800 per square foot.

The developer's offer came as the overnight Hong Kong Interbank offered rate surged by 1.38 percentage points to the highest in nearly a month at 3.9 percent. However, the one-month Hibor, which is linked to the mortgage rate, fell by about 3 basis points to 3.6858 percent.

In the secondary market, a flat with a car-parking space at Bel-Air in Po Fu Lam sold for HK$70.5 million, 10 percent lower than what it cost five years ago.

The 1,985-sq-ft flat originally had an asking price of HK$82 million but was eventually sold for HK$70.5 million, 10 percent lower than the transaction price of HK$78.5 million paid by the seller in 2018.

With the property market remaining weak, the number of real estate agents continues to decline.

Data from the Estate Agents Authority shows that as of the end of August, the licensed agent count stood at 40,430, marking a monthly decrease of 183 agents.

This decline has persisted for five consecutive months, resulting in a cumulative loss of 644 agents, marking the lowest point in over two-and-a-half years since November 2020.