Park Island, Ma Wan, Hong Kong

I took a few photos of the new Park Island Villas on Ma Wan yesterday. As I wrote earlier, it seems they are being spruced up for promotional launch. An agent I spoke to today told me he has heard they will be priced at 22,000 to 25,000 per square foot. Apparently they will also be given a special name. Ie, not Phase 6 Park Island, but something more prestegious sounding such as Ocean Villas, for example. Park Island Phase 6 Villas Meanwhile, it seems Park Island property prices again hit a new high, although transaction volume remains low. See below the latest price trend graph from Centerline. Centerline price graph

I have noticed substantial activity at the new villas. Teams of gardeners planting flowers, cranes being used to deliver and plant trees. The building next to the villas has had an artificial lawn added on the rooftop (they should have done it with real grass!). So, it seems they are getting ready and sprucing things up for a sales launch. My guess now is it will start being prompoted for sale around Chinese New Year in 2012. Interesting how the extended taxi times happened to be nicely approved just recently. Time will tell what is planned for the structure right next to the villas. To me it still looks very much like a car park, and a while back I saw a whole bunch of Government official types inspecting that structure, measuring, taking photos, looking at building plans, etc.

I am pleased to report that taxi access hours to Ma Wan have now been extended such that taxies, during the week, can enter at all times, except between 7am to 10am. During weekends taxi access is only permitted after 8pm, which I personally am OK with as it will keep away the crowds who would otherwise come to enjoy our beaches on Park Island! Below is the notice I saw posted up by the Park Island Management. Park Island Taxi schedule

Wow - its really interesting to see more new expats arriving on Park Island each week. For those of us who have been on Park Island for some time, the "new arrivals" are very noticable, especially the big smiles on their faces as they realise what a nice lifestyle choice they have made as they walk around the island. The typical profile of our new arrivals seems to be a young couple, 30-35 years of age, often pushing a pram with a small baby (or possibly a pregnant wife expecting a baby). Also noticable are the expat couples aged 55-60, who seem to be happily married, with kids already having grown up and left the home!  It's great to see how quickly new arrivals seem to fit in, get to know residents, hanging out on the beach and at the beach restaurants. (And speaking of the beach, isn't the weather GREAT right now. Blue skys, not too hot, and a little chilled in the evening. I love it right now!). A 3rd common category seem to be young Chinese couples taking up r

Transactions were again been low over the last month, which is not good news for Park Island Real estate agents who make the bulk of their money on property sales. Prices of those properties that did sell last month however again hit absolute record highs. Over the weekend, Sun Hung Kai sold all of its first 50 apartments in its The Wings development at Tseung Kwan O, with a penthouse selling for HKD $20,000 per square foot. Agents I have spoken to think these good sales results will likely lead to higher prices for Park Island, although they don't see a big pickup in sales transactions happening until the recent stock market volatility starts to show signs of stabilization.

Recently there has been talk of an MTR station at Park Island. It seems MTR Corporation may soon conduct a feasibility study into providing an MTR station at Park Island. Primary factors, I would think, are customer demand and profitability, and also whether a station is physically possible to build. See here for the proposed location of the Park Island MTR station: Location of station . Both the Airport Express and the Tung Chung line go though Tsing Ma Bridge above Ma Wan so the proposal seems to be building a platform on Tsing Ma Bridge and then building a ststation with a lift up and down to the train line. My feeling is that both Ma Wan residents, and Hong Kong residents in general would overwhelmingly support having an MTR station at Ma Wan. Whether it would be profitable I am not sure. I presume MTR would have a financial model that calculates not just trips to and from Ma Wan, but also the increased use that residents would make of the MTR network as a whole, as well as lik

Stock markets have been very volitile, and further there will apparently be an announcement on Wednesday about the HK Government providing some more low cost housing for people on lower incomes. Agents tell me that property sales transactions have been very low over the last month, although the very few that did take place seem to have been at "record prices". There have however been more people renting, and it seems the standard asking price is now $20 per square foot, per month.