Park Island, Ma Wan, Hong Kong

Today's SCMP reports that property developer HKR International plans to build six "super-deluxe" houses ranging in size from 6,000 to 8,000 square feet on Discovery Bay. "Each house will enjoy spectacular sea views and the project will be located next to the Discovery Bay Golf Club," said Chan Chi-ming, the head of the Hong Kong business unit at HKR, the developer of Discovery Bay. Agents said the houses planned by HKR could fetch more than HK$150 million each (which by the way makes our most expensive apartments on Park Island look very cheap by comparison!). "Due to their scarcity, they will be sought-after by the rich and famous.". There are 17 houses on Discovery Bay, each of them 5,168 sq ft, with gardens ranging from 6,000 to 9,000 sq ft. One of the houses on Seabee Lane is on the market for HK$120 million. Negotiations with the government over the land premium payable for the proposed project, which will be the 16th phase

Property agents around Park Island are reporting strong buying demand for Park Island properties as primarily Hong Kong investors appear to see significant gains ahead for Park Island property as a result of end-user demand. Some agents are forecasting a price of $10,000 psf for regular apartments to be reached by early 2014. I think this is possible but more likely by the end of 2014 or early 2015. Below is the most recent price graph for Park Island, just out today, which seems to confirm this trend. Park Island Price Graph At the end of the graph you can see spike of 5.5% rise in prices over the last month. The themes and the factors driving the continued rises are nothing new. Park Island is great value, excellent quality, and still very affordable compared to almost all other parts of Hong Kong. Borrowing costs are very affordable (and seem poised to remain so for some time yet), and Hong Kong residents are increasingly realizing that they need to preserve the value

Property agents are reporting a strong pick up in activity over the last few weeks as transactions start increasing again. Demand is strong form first time buyers wanting to get into the market for smaller apartments, and also apparently very strong from families who have either been renting, or had a smaller place, wanting to upgrade to larger sized places. I was sent this advert recently by the way by a private seller of a so called "combined unit" Park Island apartment: http://admart.asia/en/HongKong/Property/Apartment-for-Sale/page1/36220 . It might be a of interest to people seeking a larger home. Its hard to tell what will happen to the market and what if any other measures the Government puts in place to discourage people form selling, but my guess would be we will see 8-10% gains in prices per year over the next few years, as interest rates look like remaining at rock bottom lows for some time to come, and demand for Hong Kong property keeps rising w

Many expats (and locals too I should add) move to Park Island, but then want to renovate their apartments to suit their tastes. Expats typically want to go for a more modern, smart, simple,clean elegant look, whereas traditional Chinese often want to put in more cupboards, built-in storage, built in bed-bunks, false ceilings, etc. (Yes, obviously a generalization, and note I am not saying one style is better than the other, although personally I prefer the ex-pat style. Today I am going to post up some great renovation pictures of the ex-pat"style I mentioned above, taken from project done by in interior design firm called Primo Casa Interiors Ltd  http://www.primocasa.com/  who do high-end and stylish designs in Hong Kong. From the photos, it seems the apartment is a 2brm apartment, perhaps around 700 sqft, which for Hong Kong is the size of apartment that often houses 2 parents, one or two children, a grandparent and a maid. In the present case, it looks designed f

I received this letter below from the Town Planning Board, regarding the process that needs to be followed if a private car park is to be granted on Park Island: The submission should be made either by hand or by post to "Secretary, Town Planning Board, 15/F, North Point Government Offices,333 Java Road, North Point, Hong Kong". You may also wish to make reference to "Guidance Notes 10 - Application for Amendment of Plan Under Section 12A of The Town Planning Ordinance" (http://www.info.gov.hk/tpb/en/plan_application/apply.html#pa_12a) for detailed information regarding the submission. Thanks. Alexander W. Y. MAK TP/KT(1), TWKDPO, PlanD

Well, you heard it from me first in my earlier post on the Park Island blog: http://parkislandhongkong.blogspot.sg/2012/10/247-taxi-access-is-coming-to-park-island.html I can now confirm, Park Island has been opened up to 24/7 taxi access. I really feel this is long over due, and I suspect the reason why it was not granted sooner was that the ferry service operator was trying to protect its monopoly on public access to Park Island. A number of people predicted this would happen, and they clearly were now correct. We must again thanks Justin Tseng who has been pushing for open taxi access to be granted. In my earlier post I speculated that if confirmed, the increased taxi access might lead to minor price increases on Park Island, as higher income earners, who are less prices sensitive and who are willing to pay extra for the ease of taxis rather than the ferry or the bus, will be more inclined to rent or buy on Park Island knowing that Park Island has 24/7 taxi acc

I have heard that District counsellor Justin Tseng has proposed a multi-story carpark for Ma Wan along with a Ma Wan MTR station to the Government and also to property developer Sun Hung Kai. The location proposed iss under Tsing Ma Bridge (currently a football field). Cars would access the building with a short bridge from Ma Wan Road. If you have any details on this proposal, please do let me know. Justin, if you are reading this please feel free to post here and elaborate also.