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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2021-04-29 07:00
Last update date: 2021-04-29 07:00
The Lands Department announced on Tuesday (27th) that a piece of land located at Lot No. 279 in Sheung Shui City, Fanling, Kwu Tung District, New Territories, was granted to Sun Hung Kai Properties for 8.614 billion yuan. The maximum buildable floor area of the project is close to Based on 1.2 million square feet, the land price per square foot is about 7,183 yuan, which is over 43% higher than the previous market valuation limit of about 5,000 yuan.
While the people of Hong Kong hope that the land in Kwu Tung North can alleviate the problem of high local property prices, the government's efforts to suppress property prices may still be limited.
The winning bid price of the ancient cave project exceeded market expectations. On the one hand, it reflects that developers are confident in the development prospects of the lot, but on the other hand, it has also become a pricing indicator for neighboring lots in the future.
The government has successively expressed its intention to increase housing supply and intends to solve the housing problem in Hong Kong with the power of market supply and demand. However, the objective reality may be that the government has only accelerated the release of the value of local land after planning infrastructure and building railways in the Kwu Tung area. The problem of high property prices extends to new development sites, providing space for developers who have been hoarding land to build houses for cash.
Sun Hung Kai Properties purchased the land at a cost of more than $7,000 per square foot of land. Some industry estimates that the price per square foot may reach 18,000 after the completion of the land before the developer can get a reasonable profit.
However, the development benefits of Xindi in the Kwu Tung area are abundant, and the increase in land prices in the Kwu Tung area may be beneficial to Xindi.
Sun Hung Kai Properties owns a number of agricultural land in the Kwu Tung area, and the neighboring Ou Yi Garden and Tianluan are large-scale real estate projects under the umbrella of SHKP, plus the Kwu Tung South lot that SHKP has been approved for development and rezoning in 2019. Let the real estate in the area appreciate, it will become more value-for-money for developers.
Taking the current pace of the government's increase in housing supply, waiting for the invisible hand of the market to balance property prices, it can be described as "dreaming too early" under the huge housing demand.
Conceptual map of Kwudongbei new development area
Land is related to people's livelihood, ancient caves must be planned for the people
In business, it is understandable for developers to maximize their own interests, and it is difficult for the government to prohibit bidders from paying high prices for land.
But as the person in charge of social planning, the government also needs to find living space for Hong Kong people who are suffering from housing problems.
Regardless of the price at which developers acquire land, what the government should do is to ensure that grassroots citizens can also find a comfortable home in the local area, rather than allowing property prices to be dragged by developers to a level that ordinary people cannot cope with.
As of the end of December 2020, the public housing waiting list in Hong Kong has over 150,000 general public housing applications and about 100,000 non-elderly one-person applications. The average waiting time is 5.7 years and 3.4 years, respectively. The figures are not even Taking into account the income does not meet the public housing application standards, but it is far from the sandwich class who can afford private housing prices.
If the price per square foot of the Kwu Tung house can really rise to 18,000 yuan in the future, it is of course not affordable for the general public.
Although the authorities have determined that the 70:30 public-private housing ratio of the land in the new development area is the planning target, they have always ignored the problem of a considerable number of private housing estates in the same area.
This time, some developers are suspected of speculating on property prices in the same district through high-priced land, which once again shows that housing supply cannot be overly dependent on the market to adjust itself.
If officials are really determined to solve the land and housing problems in Hong Kong, they should consider being more aggressive in the proportion of public and private housing, otherwise it will be difficult to ensure that the new development area will become another developer's paradise, rather than a place for Hong Kong people to live and work in peace.
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Look at Hung Shui Bridge
01 Viewpoint Kwu Tung North New Development Area, Xindi Sun Hung Kai
