Robust demand as more flats hit the market

The first batch of 61 homes at The Henley II in Kai Tak have been nearly four times oversubscribed and the upcoming batch may cost 5 percent more, the developer Henderson Land Development (0012) said yesterday.

The new batch, which will offer at least 31 flats, will be unveiled soon and tenders for special units with sea views will also be announced at the same time, said Thomas Lam Tat-man, a general manager of the sales department.

Well Born Real Estate Management, a unit of Henderson, will provide the property management services for the project to ensure that each resident "enjoys star-rated hotel-like butler services," Lam added.

Also in Kai Tak, Wheelock Properties said it had sold 30 flats at Monaco Marine in less than an hour after kicking off the second round of sales of 112 homes last night.

Meanwhile, Henderson's project in Tai Kok Tsui -The Quinn Square Mile - will launch sales on Sunday, offering 138 units. Eight studio units, 113 one-bedroom units, and 17 units with two bedrooms, with areas ranging from 208 square feet to 382 sq ft, will be put on the market then, said Mark Hahn Ka-fai, the other general manager of the sales department.

The builder has collected over 600 checks, meaning the homes were 3.3 times oversubscribed, Hahn said, adding that a new price list will be unveiled next week.

In Yuen Long, The Grand Mayfair I was nearly 34 times oversubscribed with 13,500 checks for the 388 units on offer as of yesterday.

In Tuen Mun, a mega residential project, which will provide over 4,500 homes, has been named Novo Land, the developer Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016) said.

The project will be developed in six phases and phase 1A, which comprises 824 units mainly with one to two bedrooms, will launch in June at the earliest, it said.

With developers rolling out new projects, the number of primary property deals is expected to rocket this month.

Louis Chan Wing-kit, Asia-Pacific vice-chairman of the residential division at Centaline Property Agency, said around 590 new homes have been sold so far this month and the figure could reach 1,000 for April, a six-fold increase over the number sold in March.

On the luxury front, Sino Land (0083) and CLP (0002) sold a 2,140-square-foot home at St. George's Mansion in Ho Man Tin for HK$102.8 million, or HK$48,037 per sq ft via tender.

This was the second flat sold in the project this month, bringing the total number of transactions to 14 , and the developers have cashed in more than HK$2 billion in the project.