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Another sell-out for Vanke as buyers grab all but one flat on offer at The Campton in Cheung Sha Wan

By Lam Ka-sing kasing.lam@scmp.com

/ https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3087225/another-sell-out-vanke-buyers-grab-all-one-flat-offer-campton-cheung-sha?utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=contentexchange&utm_source=EdgeProp&utm_content=3087225 |

June 9, 2020 10:49 AM SGT

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Vanke Holdings (HK) on Tuesday repeated the success of its first batch of sales at its The Campton residential development in Cheung Sha Wan, nearly selling all its flats on offer, continuing a strong uptick in home sales seen last month.

The developer sold 93 out of 94 flats in the project as of 5:30pm. Some 7,000 registrations of intent were received for the second batch or 74 buyers for each flat. Last Wednesday it sold all 188 flats in the first batch, with 47 first-time buyers competing for each unit.

Market observers said Vanke's strategy of pricing the project at a significant discount to other developments in the area was key to the huge response, noting that the location, views and a wide range of flat layouts were an added bonus.

"It is definitely cheap," said Kenneth Lam, senior district director at Centaline Property Agency.

Lam said that since many flats were priced under HK$10 million, buyers were eligible for the high loan-to-value ratio of 80 per cent, adding that buyers were hardly worried about the city's economy and the threat of possible US sanctions after Beijing endorsed a national security law for Hong Kong.

The average price of a unit at The Campton's in the first batch at HK$16,411 (US$2,117) per sq ft was 26.4 per cent lower than the HK$22,309 per sq ft for Evergrande's The Vertex launched in December 2019. The mainland developer sold just 17 out of 128 flats on offer in the first phase " the lowest of all initial sales last year.

The Campton is the cheapest new project in Kowloon since October 2016 when Henderson Land Development launched Park One at HK$15,482 per sq ft. Vanke's ability to price its project so competitively is due to the fact that it bought the land for just HK$4,249 per sq ft in February 2016, at the lower end of market estimates.

However, Vanke priced Tuesday's batch slightly higher following the success of the first phase, with flats ranging between 369 sq ft and 761 sq ft priced from HK$6.6 million to HK$13.38 million.

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Meanwhile, residential transaction volumes in May jumped 45.9 per cent month on month to 5,984, according to data released by Land Registry on Tuesday. The number however was 27.1 per cent lower year on year.

Midland Realty said that the effect of the recent jump in housing transactions on property prices will only be fully reflected in June. The agency expects overall property transactions, including homes, offices, retail, industrial and parking spaces to hit a 13-month high of 7,500 in June, up 8.9 per cent from 6,885 in May.

Buggle Lau, chief analyst at Midland, said that since US-China relations have deteriorated further because of the threat of US sanctions, buyers could turn cautious and secondary market deals could drop.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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