>

Li Ka-shing's CK Asset Holdings throws weight behind Beijing's security law for Hong Kong ahead of its biggest property launch this year

By Martin Choi martin.choi@scmp.com

/ https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3088255/li-ka-shings-ck-asset-holdings-throws-weight-behind-beijings-security-law?utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=contentexchange&utm_source=EdgeProp&utm_content=3088255 |

June 16, 2020 5:50 PM SGT

Join our Telegram channel and follow our Facebook for the latest update.

"The national security law is necessary. Businesses will only be able to operate and thrive in a stable social environment, and homebuyers will feel more at ease when purchasing homes," said Chiu.

"Once the situation clears up, people will feel more at ease about the future and stability of Hong Kong."

The new security law, which bypasses Hong Kong's Legislative Council, is widely seen as a threat to the city's freedoms and has reignited the anti-government protests that engulfed the territory last year.

Chiu predicted that the property market would remain steady in the second half of the year, as the business environment and unemployment levels gradually stabilise with the aid of supporting measures from the government to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

CK Asset's new Sea to Sky project comprises 1,422 flats ranging from 434 square feet to 1,077 square feet.

Protest-wracked Hong Kong still world's priciest housing market in 2019

While the majority of them are two-bedroom units, all three- and four-bedroom apartments will come with a sea view, the company said at the briefing.

The price list of the first batch of flats will be released on Thursday.

The land price is estimated at HK$2,830 per square foot, which translates to a HK$2.96 billion land premium paid to the government when CK Asset won the tender in September 2015.

It is the developer's first new project since it offered Seaside Sonata in Cheung Sha Wan in October 2019.

Last month, the property developer won Hong Kong's first ever plot of land earmarked for a mixture of private and government-subsidised homes developed by private builders, for a price at the lower end of market expectations.

CK Asset, founded by Li Ka-shing, one of Hong Kong's richest tycoons, will pay HK$4.95 billion (US$638.8 million) for the site on Kwun Tong's Anderson Road, the Lands Department said in May.

It will be the second such government scheme since 46 households competed for each unit at the inaugural project in Hung Hom, also in Kowloon, last year.

The site, now in the first stage of development involving clearance of stones and dirt, will yield at least 1,000 starter homes priced at 80 per cent of market value for middle-income earners, along with some 700-odd private homes.

As the outbreak of Covid-19 in Hong Kong shows signs of easing, homeowners have started to sell their properties at a loss. A 383 square foot studio flat at The Warren in Causeway Bay was recently sold for HK$9.85 million, a loss of HK$4.05 million from when the owner bought it nine years ago.

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.

Follow our channels to receive property news updates 24/7 round the clock.

Subscribe to our newsletter