CK Asset cuts prices for Hong Kong houses by a third to boost sales

HONG Kong developer CK Asset Holdings has slashed prices for some homes by a third, as market competition heats up.

CK is offering discounts for 28 units in its project called #LYOS located in the New Territories. Apartments made available from previously cancelled transactions have discounts up to 25 per cent, the company said. Meanwhile, the values for two-storey units were cut by as much as 32 per cent.

After housing market weakness in the past year, the city’s developers are pushing to clear their inventory with price cuts, seeking to capture increased demand from the removal of extra taxes earlier this year.

Last month, CK priced its homes in the Blue Coast project on Hong Kong Island about 20 per cent lower than nearby competitors, while Great Eagle Holdings’s units in the Ho Man Tin area were initially priced at about 30 per cent below neighbouring new projects that launched a year earlier.

Other builders including Sun Hung Kai Properties and Henderson Land Development are likely to follow CK’s price-cutting strategy, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. That could undermine pricing for existing homes and expose developers’ profits to increased risk, due to a potential rise in cancellations of transactions made before the discounts. BLOOMBERG