Staff reporter

The Hong Kong Jockey Club will rebuild a sports complex in Happy Valley into a residential project, which will offer a gross floor area of around 486,000 square feet.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Sports Complex on 48 Shan Kwong Road, which includes golf simulation rooms, a number of tennis courts squash courts and other facilities, will be redeveloped into three 21-story apartment buildings and one block of two-story recreational facilities for residents, after the Buildings Department approved the construction plan in June.

The site of about 97,000 sq ft was granted to the club in 1933 for residential use but the club was permitted to build a complex with recreational facilities in 1980s.

For years, the Town Planning Board had insisted that the club should restore the site for its intended use.

It remains unknown whether the residential buildings will be put for sale or rental or retained for self-use purposes.

The club responded that it will further study the plan.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong saw more than 300 home deals canceled in the first half of the year with some prospective buyers forced to compensate the developer in addition to forfeiting their deposits.

The number of property sales cancellations in the first half of the year has already exceeded the total for the whole of last year, reaching 308 cases, according to Centaline.

The market saw 149 cancellations in the second quarter, increasing by 3.4 times compared to the same period a year earlier and decreasing by 6 percent over the first three months.

In the second quarter, there were double digit home cancellation deals in Kai Tak, Tuen Mun and Yau Tong, and at least 10 flats were resold by developers with a price reduction of 26 percent to 32 percent.

Some homebuyers who canceled the deal not only had to pay the deposit but also were charged by developers for the price difference if the price of the new transaction was lower than the previous one.

The rising forfeitures came as Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016) put more than 900 new homes on the market.

Cullinan Sky, phase one, in Kai Tak developed by Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016) is to offer 906 flats and will release the sales brochure in early September.

The tennis courts at the complex.

HKJC to convert sports complex into homes