Buyer interest soars for Wong Chuk hang homes

CK Asset (1113) has collected more than 12,000 checks for Blue Coast, its new project atop Wong Chuk Hang MTR station, making the 248 flats in the first two price lists over 47 times oversubscribed.

The developer will roll out a third price list shortly to meet market demand, said Justin Chiu Kwok-hung, CK Asset's executive director, adding that the firm may hike prices for future batches based on the market's response.

Chiu said there's a 70 percent chance that property prices in the city will rise this year.

Meanwhile, Wheelock Properties said it sold nearly 800 flats in the first quarter, cashing in nearly HK$8.7 billion. It sold 762 of them in the month after the government removed all the housing curbs, raking in over HK$7.3 billion.

The highlight during the quarter would be Seasons Place, its new project in Lohas Park, which has conducted two rounds of sales and sold 542 flats, accounting for nearly 85 percent of the total revenue for the quarter.

Meanwhile, deals on the secondary market slowed over the four-day Easter break as people traveled to the mainland and overseas.

A total of 15 deals were recorded at 10 major housing estates over the holiday, which was down by 21 percent from the 19 transactions notched up during the same period last year, according to Centaline Property Agency.

Among them, Taikoo Shing in Quarry Bay and Laguna City in Kwun Tong recorded no transactions, the agency said.

The number for the weekend alone also fell by 42 percent to 11 from a week ago, the lowest since the withdrawal of all stamp duties a little over a month ago, according to Centaline.

Louis Chan Wing-kit, Asia-Pacific vice-chairman of the agency's residential division, said that many Hongkongers went overseas or headed north to mainland cities during the break and this, coupled with fierce competition in the first-hand markets, hit second-hand deals.

Centaline's rival Midland Realty recorded 21 transactions at 10 blue-chip estates during the four-day holiday, similar to the 22 transactions last year.

For the weekend alone, it saw the number of transactions fall 24 percent to 16 from the previous week.