Kwun Tong job gets 24 expressions of interest

The Urban Renewal Authority's Kwun Tong town center redevelopment project's areas four and five, which have introduced flexibility in plot ratios in shaping a building complex with government facilities and commercial operations, has received 24 expressions of interest.

The Kwun Tong spread is the URA's largest-ever single redevelopment project spread across five areas.

The last phases of the redevelopment cover 25,595 square meters. Upon completion there can be a maximum total gross floor area of 201,220 square meters.

The authority initiated what it calls "floating planning parameters" in the tender of the project.

Under this arrangement, the total gross floor area is unchanged but flexibility will be given to the successful developer or consortium to determine the actual areas within specified ranges for office, hotel and other commercial uses.

It has also been noted when it comes to flexibility the Planning Department did not object to a plan for building 75 flats on Kennedy Road.

That project at 33-35 Kennedy Road, which is owned by Keith Kerr, a former chairman of Swire Properties (1972), had applied for the redevelopment to a 28-story residential building.

In the primary market, Miami Quay I at Kai Tak will launch its first round sale with 138 units next Monday. There will be 137 flats on the price list, and one will be sold via tender.

Dah Sing Bank (2356) has meanwhile raised the mortgage rate cap by 0.2 percentage points to 2.85 percent, which takes the number of banks in Hong Kong that have raised the mortgage rate cap to 10.

But Bank of China Hong Kong (2388) and Hang Seng Bank (0011) have not raised the cap.

Knight Frank said Hong Kong home prices fell 2.4 percent in the second quarter, making it 145th in the world in the property price trend ranking.

Yet despite the weak performance of residential property prices in Hong Kong there has not been a significant fall in prices due to headwinds such as interest rate hikes and a rebound from the pandemic, said Knight Frank director Martin Wong

On the commercial property front, Colliers said the vacancy rate of Grade A offices reached 11 percent as of July - the highest since 2008 - because social unrest and the pandemic had affected Hong Kong's economy during the past three years.

And in the overseas property market, Chinachem Group bought the London headquarters of social media company TikTok for 158.5 million pounds (HK$1.41 billion) yesterday.