TWO Chinese mainland property firms snapped up a piece of Hong Kong residential land at a record-breaking price Friday, highlighting once again the territory’s skyrocketing real estate prices. Unicorn Bay (HK) Investments Ltd., a unit of Shenzhen-based Logan Property Holdings Co. Ltd., and Guangzhou-based KWG Property Holding Ltd., outbid 13 competitors when they jointly won the tender at a price of HK$16.9 billion (US$2.18 billion), shattering the previous HK$11.8 billion mark set two decades ago. Chinese mainland developers have been aggressively buying land in Hong Kong, gobbling up 29 percent of the land sold in 2015-2016. Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary, Paul Chan, earlier last week warned that the city’s astronomical property prices continued to be an issue. The buying frenzy has also raised concerns that home prices, currently at a historic high in one of the least affordable cities in the world, would continue to rise. A top Hong Kong government official said Thursday that competition from mainland developers is not an issue as Hong Kong is a free market that welcomes competition from abroad. This marked the first time Logan Property, ranked 32nd largest on the mainland, and KWG Property successfully bought land in Hong Kong. The companies said in a joint press release the plot of land, offering a panoramic view of the ocean in southern Hong Kong island, is a “rarity.”(SD-Agencies) |