The construction amount is the least in the same period of 9 years, and the completion amount only reached 28% of the Government's expectation.
(By Ngan LunLok) The Government has been trapped in a "no land for sale" situation in recent years, and its adjustment of public and private housing supply ratio from the previous 6:4 to current 7:3 decreased the private property supply further. According to the latest information from the Buildings Department, although there were four private residential projects started in June, involving 527 units, but the total construction amount in the first half of the year was only 2,719 units, which not only was 67% less than the 8,360 units in the same period last year but also was the least of the same period in nine years since 2011. At the same time, the completion amount was also low, with only 5,734 units had been finished in the first half of the year, and it was only 28% of the RVD’s expectation, thus it is a slim chance to achieve the target in the whole year.
According to the information of the Buildings Department, there were 4 private residential projects started in June 2019 in Hong Kong, involving a total of 527 units, an increase of 526 units from 1 unit in May, but the total construction amount in the first half of this year was 2,719 units, which was sharply down 67% compared with the 8,360 units in the same period last year, and also was the least of the same period in nine years since 2011..
The residential property construction amount in the first half of the year decreased by 67% on year-on-year basis.
The largest one among the four construction projects is SHKP’s To Shek Street land site in Sha Tin, providing 335 units. In addition, SHKP’s Prince Edward Road West No. 195 in Ho Man Tin of the same series, plus with Henderson’s project in Seymour Terrace No.6 and Robinson Road No.62C, started the constructions of the same month supplying 101 units and 90 units respectively. Stafford Road No.12 (1 unit) in Kowloon Tong also started in the same month.
The construction amount of Kowloon accounted for more than 57% of the total.
Together with the above projects, Hong Kong had a total of 16 private housing projects started in the first half of 2019, involving a total of 2,719 units. Among them, the construction amount in Kowloon was the largest, involving a total of 1,561 units in 5 projects, accounting for about 57.4% of the total; Hong Kong Island had 8 private housing projects supplying a total of 756 units, accounting for about 27.8% of the total; New Territories had a total of 3 projects supplying 402 units, accounting for about 14.8% of the total.
The Research Department Director of Ricacorp, Chen HoiChiu expresses, the progress of private housing construction slowed down in the first half of the year, but there will still be many projects to be launched in the second half of the year, and the construction amount of the whole year will up to about 13,000 units plus other projects carried out by developers using their own land reserves.
The private housing completion amount in the first half of the year reached a new 4-year low.
Besides the low construction amount, the completion amount was also at a low level. According to the data, 5 private residential projects were completed in June, involving 1,871 units, which were an increase by about 38.9% month-on-month and hit a six-month high. However, in the first half of the year, the completion amount was only 5,734 units, which not only was about 8.1% less than the 6,236 units in the same period last year but also was sharply down about 61.1% from the 14,748 units in the second half of last year, hitting a four-year low. Base on the RVD’s forecast of 20,415 units in the whole year of 2019, the private housing completion amount in the first half of this year only accounted for about 28.1%.
Looking back at the trend of the completion amount in this year, there were only 971 units of private housing completed in the first quarter, a relatively slow pace, but many large-scale projects in the second quarter were completed, stimulating the completion amount in the quarter sharply to rise to 4,763 units. The Chief Analyst of Midland, Lau KaFai points out that, the largest among the 5 newly completed private residential projects is SHKP’s Cullinan West III (1,172 units) in Nam Cheong Station, followed by Cheung Kong’s Harbour Glory (378 units) in North Point, Wing Tai’s The Carmel (178 units) in Tuen Mun, and Henderson’s South Walk Aura (142 units) etc.
Dividing by districts, in the first half of this year, New Territories had the largest completion amount, with 14 projects finished involving a total of 2,617 units that were about 45.6% of the total in same period; Kowloon had 5 projects finished involving a total of 2,127 units that were about 37.1% of the total in same period; while Hong Kong Island had 6 projects finished involving a total of 990 units that were about 17.3% of the total in same period.
