Top Hong Kong builder sees weekend sales frenzy
[HONG KONG] Hong Kong's biggest property developer Sun Hung Kai Properties sold another 376 flats on Sunday (May 18) after receiving more than 34,000 bids, becoming one of the most sought after projects in months thanks to low interest rates.
The new round of sales at Sun Hung Kai's Sierra Sea in the Ma On Shan area comes days after a quick sellout of its first batch earlier last week. The flats sold at about HK$9,645 (S$1,601) to HK$13,500 per square feet.
A drop in interest rates is helping the city's residential market. The one-month Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate, or Hibor, which often serves as a reference rate for mortgages, dipped below 1.3 per cent, the lowest since August 2022.
'The one-month Hibor's plunge could push mortgage rates further below residential rental yields and reignite investment interest in Hong Kong's housing market,' Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Patrick Wong and John Wong wrote in a note on Friday.
They also expect monthly new-home sales in the Asia financial hub to jump by 36 per cent from 1,100 units in April.
The company sold all 160 units in the 1B phase of the same residential development within hours on Wednesday.
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Home value for secondary transactions slightly edged up as borrowing costs lowered. Centaline Property Centa-City Leading Index, a gauge for second-hand home prices, climbed by about 0.26 per cent in the week to May 11.
Any further advancement in the secondary market will depend on whether the US Federal Reserve cuts rates in June, said Willy Liu, chief executive officer of Ricacorp Properties.
Lower interest rates are helping increase the chances of Hong Kong's residential property market bottoming out, according to Jefferies Financial Group.
Justin Chiu, executive director of CK Asset Holdings, said Hong Kong's property market is at a 'turning point', and he expects property prices in the city to rise, according to an interview with local media on Monday.
The city's home prices are 29 per cent below their peak in 2021, data from the government show. The number of households with negative equity – when the value of a property is less than the outstanding mortgage loan – rose to the highest since 2003 as at the end of March. BLOOMBERG
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The number of on-board deaths rose sharply to 244 from 72 in 2023, but the fatality risk in 2024 of 0.06 was still lower than the five-year average of 0.1. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
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There has been a growing number of theft cases reported on board flights to a number of cities in Asia. PHOTO: ST FILE – The theft of personal belongings on board planes is a growing problem in some parts of the world, and the global trade body for airlines plans to hold discussions on how to deal with this in the coming weeks. Mr Nick Careen, senior vice-president for operations, safety and security at the International Air Transport Association (Iata), said feedback from its members indicate that in-flight theft has become more of an issue on certain routes in the past 12 to 18 months. This is in line with the recovery in international air travel post-pandemic. 'Our security advisory group are planning to meet in the next week or two to discuss what we could potentially do to better manage this – out of China mostly, where it seems to be very organised,' he told reporters on June 3. 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In April, Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Scoot banned the use and charging of power banks on their flights, as have carriers in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Hong Kong. In May, Southwest Airlines in the US also tightened its rules on portable battery use. Mr Careen said there is nothing wrong with airlines adjusting their procedures based on their own safety risk assessments. But Iata has not seen a rampant increase of fires on board planes, and he warned against making knee-jerk reactions. Airline procedures should be ultimately be standardised, he added, and any changes should be made via a regulatory review by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, which is in discussion about the issue. Mr Careen also addressed concerns over turbulence, which he said is the leading cause of accidents on board aircraft. This is one area where Iata is using data to improve safety, he added. Today, 28 airlines, including SIA and Scoot, exchange real-time turbulence information using Iata's Turbulence Aware platform, sharing reports from more than 2,700 aircraft. This is up from 25 carriers six months ago, and Taiwanese carrier Eva Air said on June 2 that it will be joining the platform too. Asked if the data-sharing has led to more flights avoiding choppy air, Mr Careen said Iata has not been tracking this. While it should do so, this would also be hard to measure, he noted. Mr Careen said there has been a rise in turbulence incidents, but this has primarily been due to increased reporting. Referencing SIA's Flight SQ321, which hit severe turbulence in May 2024 that led to a passenger dying of a suspected heart attack, he said such sensational incidents have exacerbated the focus on this topic. It is also too early to draw conclusions about the impact of climate change on turbulence incidents, he added. Mr Careen on June 3 also called on governments to improve their accident reporting. 'The standards are clear. Thirty days after, you're required to provide a preliminary report. And 12 months later, you should have the report completed. That does not happen consistently,' he added. Mr Careen said there are still 107 investigations from the period between 2018 and 2023 that remain incomplete, noting that 234 lives were lost in these accidents. Calling this a 'dereliction of duty', Mr Careen added: 'You can't prevent the next (accident) from happening without understanding what will happen in the first place.' The politicisation of investigations is an issue, as are labour and technical snags. 'We're willing to accept the good reasons. When we don't get a reason, that's when there's a problem,' he said. According to Iata, there were 1.13 accidents per million flights in 2024 – lower than the five-year average of 1.25. The number of on-board deaths rose sharply to 244 from 72 in 2023, but the fatality risk in 2024 of 0.06 was still lower than the five-year average of 0.10. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
