GuShiio.com ① New World Development sold two properties and a parking space in Huangdu to Zheng Jiachun’s spouse for HK$14.869 million to realize land reserves and strengthen its financial situation;
② The Imperial City State Pavilia entered the market in January, opening 168 suites for the first time, collecting more than 7800 votes and oversubscribed by more than 45 times, setting a new record for the “ticket king” in 2025.
The project’s selling price hit an eight-year low for real estate in the same district, and New World family members also rushed to “snap up” their own properties.
Recently, New World Development (00017.HK) announced that it would sell two properties in the STATE PAVILIA project at 283 King’s Road, North Point, Hong Kong, to Yip Meiqing, the company’s executive director and spouse of Chairman Zheng Jiachun, involving two connected units and a parking space. The total transaction consideration was HK$14.869 million.
“The transaction is a good opportunity for the Group to accelerate the realization of the value of its land bank and/or properties held and generate additional working capital to strengthen the Group’s liquidity and financial position.” New World Development stated in the announcement.
This is not the first time that New World Development has sold properties to its “own people.” In January this year, Huang Shaomei, CEO of New World Development, spent HK$54.88 million to purchase a thousand-foot (note: “feet” is the British unit of length “feet”) mansion and a parking space in Imperial City.
At present, New World Development is facing financial difficulties that urgently need to withdraw cash, and Hong Kong’s property market is gradually weakening after the “hot” effect has subsided.
In January this year, the overall transaction volume of Hong Kong’s property market fell below 5000 units again, a month-on-month decline of more than double digits. The number of units sold and transaction amount both hit the lowest since September 2024. The Central Plains Valuation Index (major banks) CVI released by the Central Plains Real Estate Research Department on February 13 reported 43.18 points, down 7.17 points month-on-month, the lowest in 15 weeks.
“CVI’s trend has weakened, but the index is still in the good and weak boundary range above 40 points, indicating that short-term property prices will continue to rise and fall in a narrow range (Note: ” Up and down “refers to” up and down “),” said Yang Mingyi, senior co-director of Centaline Real Estate Research Department.
Profit transfer behind oversubscription
North Point is located at the northern end of Hong Kong Island and bordering Victoria Port in the north. It was one of the early development areas in Hong Kong. In 1952, the Imperial Theater on King’s Road in North Point was completed. Famous singers and groups such as Teresa Teng performed here, witnessing the glory era of Hong Kong’s old entertainment industry.
The Imperial Capital Theater is the predecessor of the Imperial Capital. In 2015, a consortium led by New World Development launched a large-scale acquisition of old buildings. In August 2020, New World Development applied for the compulsory auction of the Royal Capital Theater with a reserve price of HK$4.776 billion, setting a record for the largest compulsory auction amount in Hong Kong history at that time.
Nearly five years after the reconstruction, the residential part of the Imperial Theater was named “Imperial State Pavilia” and entered the market in January this year. New World Development pre-sold 26 residential units and 53 parking spaces through tender. As of February 10, Huangdu has sold a total of 14 residences and 20 parking spaces, with a collection of nearly HK$550 million.
On February 8, the Royal Capital Model Room was opened and subscription registration was launched, launching 88 residential units. Within an hour after subscription was launched, Huangdu recorded oversubscription. The development of the New World is accelerating, and the Royal Capital has launched a total of 168 suites for the first time.
As of 2 pm on February 14, Huangdu closed ticket collection, and accumulated more than 7800 votes. Based on the first shipment volume of 168 suites, the oversubscription exceeded 45 times, setting a record for the “ticket king” for new listings in 2025. Ho Jiaxin, director of the Business and Marketing (Special Projects) Department of New World Development, said that the market response was very enthusiastic. More than half of the customers were local customers, including many investors and large customers. Many groups of buyers were interested in purchasing more than 2 sets. The first round of sales of the project will start on February 15.
The over-subscription of Imperial Capital is not unrelated to the significant profit margins of the development of the New World.
According to the first price list released by New World Development, the discounted average price per square foot of Royal Capital is approximately HK$18,500, a decrease of 11% from new listings in the same area, setting a new selling price in the Eastern District of Hong Kong Island in nearly eight years. The cheapest is a one-bedroom unit with a saleable area of 343 square feet, with a total price of approximately HK$6.055 million.
Ho Jiaxin said that in Huangdu’s first price list, the actual selling prices of 82 sets were all below HK$10 million, and the actual price per foot were all below HK$20,000.”There will be room for price increases in future projects.”
“(The average discounted price per square foot of Huangdu is about HK$18,500) is about 25% discount to the market price per square foot, which will inevitably freeze the second-hand market on Hong Kong Island.” Chen Yongjie, vice chairman of Centaline Real Estate’s Asia Pacific region and president of the residential department, said.
Chen Yongjie believes that Huangdu is supported by the rental demand of professionals and professionals working nearby. The average monthly rental of second-hand houses in the vicinity is HK$70 to HK$75 per foot, and the rent of some per foot is as high as HK$100. It is estimated that the rent per foot of the project can reach HK$80. The rental return reaches 5 to 6%, which will become the first choice for investors to enter the market.
The industry hopes to cut interest rates to boost confidence
The oversubscription of Imperial Capital is a footnote to the recent warming up of Hong Kong’s property market. After the Spring Festival, developers actively promoted the offer, gradually released purchasing power, and Hong Kong’s property market rebounded.
Several brokers introduced that the Hong Kong market has performed positively from time to time recently. Not only have new offers received large subscriptions, but second-hand market buyers have also accelerated their entry into the market.
An agent from Centaline Real Estate in Tsuen Wan recently sold a three-bedroom unit at a transaction price of HK$16.5 million, a decrease of HK$500,000 compared with the listing price.”Buyers have been looking at the house for half a year and believe that the property market is gradually taking shape after the Spring Festival. Worried that property prices would turn around and pick up, so they quickly decided to buy for their own homes.”
Take a transaction in Kennedy Town as an example. The property was listed for HK$5.68 million at the end of last year and was recently sold for HK$5.35 million.”The buyer is a local investor who believes that the price is cheap and the rental market in the area is good. Therefore, buying is used as investment and rent collection.” According to estimates, if the market rent is calculated at 21,000 Hong Kong dollars per month, the rental return rate of this property can reach 4.7%.
Overall, Hong Kong’s real estate market fell back to a low level again due to the weakening of the “spicy” effect.
According to statistics from the Land Registry of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, in January this year, 4938 building purchase and sale contracts were registered in Hong Kong (including residential buildings, parking spaces and industrial and commercial shop properties), with a total value of HK$36.734 billion, a decrease of 10.4% and 14.2% respectively from the 5510 cases and HK$42.789 billion in December 2024.
Source: Land Registry, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government
Yang Mingyi believes that December is a traditional off-season, and the market atmosphere is wait-and-see. Developers have suspended the sale of large new markets, and second-hand trading has continued to be sparse, resulting in the overall transaction volume falling for two consecutive months. January coincides with the Lunar New Year holiday, and it is estimated that registrations in February will continue to hover at low levels.
Real estate companies have a more positive outlook for subsequent market performance.
In an interview with the media, people from Sun Hung Kai Properties said that after the Lunar New Year, the Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate (Hibor) will be lowered. I believe that the trend of interest rate reduction will remain unchanged this year. It is expected that the situation of “mortgage repaying is more common than renting”(Note: It is more cost-effective to buy a house and repay a loan than renting a house) will become more common. After the government launched measures to boost the economy, the stock market and market sentiment rebounded, which can boost home buyers ‘confidence.
After the holiday, the market warmed up, and many real estate companies successively disclosed their opening plans. Among them, Cheung Kong Group plans to promote 5 projects during the year, with a volume of more than 2700 units; Sun Hung Kai Properties will launch 6 properties in the next 10 months, involving Kai Tak Development Area, Tin Shui Wai, Tuen Mun and other areas.
