Aiden He

At least 12 of the 98 units on offer at The Henley II in Kai Tak were said to be sold after sales kicked off yesterday.

The developer Henderson Land Development (0012) said it has received 440 cheques for the 92 flats on the price lists, making the batch four times oversubscribed, and had sold four out of the six flats via tender.

The four homes sold by tender had areas of 888 square feet each and buyers forked out between HK$30.2 million and HK$34.5 million - or between HK$34,000 per sq ft and HK$38,851 per sq ft - for the flats.

Louis Chan Wing-kit, Asia-Pacific vice-chairman of the residential division at Centaline Property Agency, said that property prices in Kai Tak will benefit from the opening of the East Rail Line cross-harbor extension, though the effect on The Henley II sales may be limited.

In Yuen Long, The Grand Mayfair I was nearly 22 times oversubscribed with 7,393 checks for the 327 flats on sale today.

On offer are 103 one-bedroom flats, 173 with two bedrooms, and 51 with three bedrooms, which are priced from HK$6.45 million to HK$14.91 million after discounts.

The 715-flat project is being jointly developed by Sino Land (0083), K Wah International (0173), and China Overseas Land and Investment (0688).

Also in the same area, CK Asset (1113) has unveiled a new batch of 23 duplex flats at #Lyos, with prices starting from HK$13.82 million after discounts, or from HK$17,668 per sq ft.

The sales will kick off on Saturday and another eight special units will be sold by tender, said the developer.

All the 290 standard flats on price lists were sold last year and together with the duplex flats sold earlier, CK Asset has cashed in HK$1.85 billion from the project.

As developers speed up the pace of launching new projects, Chan expects the total number of first-hand transactions to be above 2,500 this month, which could be an 18-month high.

The market watcher said that the upcoming interest rate hikes may only have a temporary psychological impact on buyers and that buying properties is still a tool to offset currency depreciation amid inflation pressure.

Meanwhile, real estate consultancy JLL said the high level of expected supply in the primary market will likely prompt developers to take on competitive pricing strategies, which in turn will exert pressure on the secondary market. Combined with the factor of increasing interest rates, housing prices will be under pressure this year, it added.

Sales kick off for Henley II in Kai Tak