More than two months after the removal of the cooling measures, the transaction volume of the first and second hand properties has decreased sharply, resulting in the short-term rebound that was caused by the scrapping measures. As the transaction turnovers have been declining, there will be mounting pressure to developers who must sell their new projects in near future.
Two months ago, Cheung Kong launched the sale of “Blue Coast” in the southern district of Hong Kong Island at a considerable discounted price to lure the home buyers. This selling strategy is similar to launching a price war in the property market.
Sun Hung Kai properties (SHKP) recently signed a five-year syndicated loan of HK $25 billion with a number of banks to repay the short-term loan. SHKP currently has total liabilities of HK$132.7 billion, with an average annual loan maturity of more than $14.5 billion.
SHKP sold approximately 3,600 units in the year of 2023 and gained approximately 26 billion dollars. For the short-term loan 
payment, its one-year short-term loans are $20.2 billion, and the two-years reached $14.5 billion. The experts estimated that SHKP must sell 4,400 units or more in this year to meet the loan repayment schedule. Therefore, SHKP will strengthen its effort to push sales of its new projects in the second half of this year.
At the first half of May, the sales volume of second-hand properties fell by 20% compared with the same period of last month. In addition, the first-hand properties transactions prices in Yuen Long and Tuen Mun decreased significantly, resulting in a pressure to SHKP, which is now to push sales of its remaining units of “Novo Land” in the same district. In addition, SHKP owns 2,302 new units in Sai Kung and 1,121 units in Kai Tak's Kai Tak Bay project, which are ready for sale in this year. Under the current market sentiment, it will be difficult for SHKP to sell out all these flat units in those two projects. If it is true, SHKP may not achieve this year's sales target.
Cheung Kong has set a precedent to slash the new projects prices to boost the sales volume. This low pricing strategy has been successfully grabbed the precious home buyers., and it is no doubt that SHKP will follow this strategy to push sales of its new flats. From now on, the new flat units will be sold at lower prices as time goes by. Finally, SHKP will become the second harvester of property market following Cheung Kong.More than two months after the removal of the cooling measures, the transaction volume of the first and second hand properties has decreased sharply, resulting in the short-term rebound that was caused by the scrapping measures. As the transaction turnovers have been declining, there will be mounting pressure to developers who must sell their new projects in near future.
