Signs that property market in Hong Kong is cooling as land sells for less than expected
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The property market in Hong Kong may be cooling as the government sold land in one of the city's most exclusive areas last week for less than analysts estimated.
The winning bid for the site near Repulse Bay Road, in the Island South district, was HK$1.67 billion but the site, with a total buildable area of 42,000 square feet, was expected to fetch HK$1.68 billion, according to the median estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Leung Chun-ying, who in July will take over as Hong Kong's new leader, has vowed to increase housing supply to quell public discontent over a widening wealth gap in the world's most expensive place to buy a home.
Hong Kong's home prices have increased by more than 78% since early 2009 due to record low mortgage rates and an under supply of new units.
Repulse Bay is home to some of the city's richest people including billionaire Cheng Yu-tung of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group and gambling tycoon Stanley Ho.
The area has developed around the site of the former Repulse Bay Hotel, built in 1920 and demolished in 1982, and featured in the 1955 Hollywood romantic drama Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, with William Holden, and Coming Home, the 1978 film starring Jane Fonda and Jon Voight. Ernest Hemingway stayed at the hotel in the 1940s before going to cover the war in China. Marlon Brando was a guest in the 1950s.
