Sales of new homes in both the mass and luxury markets were lackluster at the weekend amid a falling stock market and economic uncertainties.
Henderson Land (0012), the first to put out two new projects this year, Harbour Park at Cheng Sha Wan and Wellesley at Mid-Levels west, sold only part of its batches over the cold weekend.
The Wellesley on Robinson Road has seen only 12 of 18 units sold, bringing the developer HK$350 million.
Buyers were mainly investors, with one buying two units for more than HK$50 million.
Wellesley is said to be priced quite low when compared with new homes in the area with an average price of HK$23,000 per square foot.
The other project, Harbour Park, by Henderson Land subsidiary Hong Kong Ferry (0050), sold only nine out of 70 units after sales began on Saturday.
Jacinto Tong Men-leung, chief executive of Gale Well Group, said developers are likely to price homes low this year. He wrote in his blog that CK Property's (1113) executive director Justin Chiu Kwok-hung has spoken to him about boosting sales by cutting asking prices to make a profit.
He also expects Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016) to trim asking prices to reach its sales target this year.
"Other homeowners have no choice but to slash prices and follow,"he said.
In the secondary market, only four deals were recorded in the 10 major housing estates in the past weekend, according to estate agency Midland.
Centaline expects deals in the property market this month to plunge to a 25-year low of 3,500.
Meanwhile, Chinachem Group has launched a public tender for an en-bloc sale in Tsim Sha Tsui. The 19-floor office building on 16 Hart Avenue has a market value of up to HK$500 million, or HK$18,451 to HK$20,501 per sq ft.
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