Downpour fails to douse city’s housing fever as two developers post near-complete sales

A tropical monsoon packing wind gusts of 70km/h (43.5mph) failed to douse Hong Kong’s feverish demand for housing, with two developers reporting overwhelming response to their latest weekend property sales.

Far East Consortium said it sold 106 of the 112 units on offer at The Garrison apartment complex in Sha Tin as of 8:30pm, while agents said Sun Hung Kai had sold more than 100 units of the second phase of it St Martin project in Tai Po.

The near-complete sale of the two projects, coming a week after a government-imposed vacancy tax took effect, shows that the latest measure - aimed at forcing developers to release more housing property into the market to meet demand - has not slowed the advances in property prices, which rose for the 26th consecutive month in June.

“In theory, the price increase of flats should slow down a bit after the vacancy tax policy compared to the first quarter,” said Centaline Property Agency’s Asia-Pacific vice-chairman of the residential division Louis Chan Wing-kit. “The trading volume will largely remain high no matter how the policy changes.”

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor levied on June 29 a vacancy tax on developers who were hoarding completed units, and offered subsidies to allow more first-time buyers and low-income households to afford public housing, answering a plea for help by city residents desperate to afford owning residential property.