CK Asset Wins Site in Hong Kong’s Sai Ying Pun

129-151 Queen’s Road West is ready for a makeover

CK Asset Holdings has won a tender for a residential development site in the Sai Ying Pun area of western Hong Kong Island with a bid of HK$1.16 billion ($150 million).

The developer controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing secured the rights to the Queen’s Road West/In Ku Lane project, which is expected to provide 121,525 square feet (11,290 square metres) of gross floor area on a site spanning 16,864 square feet, the Urban Renewal Authority said Thursday in a release.

CK Asset bested six other bidders in the tender exercise, including local heavyweights Sun Hung Kai Properties and Wheelock Properties. The URA plans to publish the unsuccessful tender amounts on an anonymous basis within 21 days, as is customary.

The project at 129-151 Queen’s Road West (odd numbers) is the third site won by CK Asset at government land sales in 2022 as the builder looks to replenish its thinning local pipeline.

Small Flats on Tap

The new project is likely to yield 290 apartments priced in the region of HK$10 million each, said Alex Leung, senior director at surveying firm CHFT Advisory and Appraisal, who identified the site’s actual location as Sheung Wan rather than Sai Ying Pun.

CK Asset’s Li Ka-Shing continues to recharge his project pipeline

“The URA imposes a minimum size restriction for not allowing nano flats,” Leung told Mingtiandi on Friday. “On the other hand, they require the awarded developer to provide more small-sized units. As the project is located in a convenient location in Sheung Wan, the developer will build mainly small-sized units.”

He drew a contrast between Queen’s Road West/In Ku Lane, for which CK Asset will pay roughly HK$9,554 ($1,228) per square foot of GFA, and another URA project nearby, Sung Hing Lane/Kwai Heung Street, awarded to Far East Consortium in August for about HK$13,085 per square foot.

The 27 percent drop in awarded price was greater than market predictions and reflects developers’ pessimistic view of the future, said Leung, who estimates the new project’s value upon completion at HK$3.2 billion.

Racking Up Projects

CK Asset has boosted its Hong Kong project pipeline this year against a backdrop of declining sales and the surprise HK$20.8 billion disposal of its 21 Borrett Road project in Mid-Levels.

In October, CK Asset topped four competing bids to acquire a residential development site in the Tuen Mun area of the New Territories for HK$4.6 billion, winning the rights to build up to 1.3 million square feet of new homes in the Tai Lam section of Castle Peak Road.

Seven months earlier, the developer had bested six competing bids to win a 58,534 square foot residential site in the redevelopment hotbed of To Kwa Wan for HK$5.99 billion.