Park Island, Ma Wan, Hong Kong

In part 1 of this series,  A hike around Ma Wan Island - Part 1  I posted photos of the path up to the top of the mountain on Ma Wan. In this part 2 of that series, I will post pics taken from the top down to the other side which faces Hong Kong island. The Tsing Ma Bridge viewed from the top of Ma Wan Once at the top, you will walk past the gravestones and tombs of local Ma Wan villagers. And on the other side you will get an amazing view of this island here. Its so inviting, and I would love to swim over to it some time! Island viewed from Ma Wan On the other side, you will also see a very private nice beach. There is also a nice pier on this side of the island. Here is a photo of the pier looking towards Ma Wan. You can see the Tsing Ma bridge in the distance. There is also a small pagoda with seats that you can use to rest in the shade, or have a picnic. PS - Be sure to bring water with you, especially if you are hiking in the summer months. There are no

A great photo here of Park Island ex-pats having fun down on the beach with a toga party. It's not actually an annual Park Island event, but if not, perhaps it should be :) Park Island Toga Party I have had friends from HK island ask me what the social scene is like in Park Island, and they are often suprised at how much fun the expats living there have. Drinks (at the bars (often Cafe Roma's) or onw of the Ma Wan restaurants, or at people's apartments) are always happening. Lots of BBQs. Hanging out by the pool. Doing sports together (hiking, gym, swimming, football, martial arts). Having out at a friend's apartment watching football or the F1. There's always something going on.    As for partying in the bars and clubs on HK island, that's just 15 mins away by taxi. There seems to be two types of ex-pats on Park Island. The younger crowd, who are still into the clubbing on HK island (we see them sometimes coming back home at 6-7am in the morning!) and th

Some photos of some nice interior rennovation of a Hong Kong apartment, in Park Island, Ma Wan. This apartment is 2 bedrooms, and 740 square feet. Nice work guys! Their website is http://www.goodliving.com.hk/ .

Despite the high deposit ratios imposed by the HKMA for propety loans in Hong Kong, property prices in Hong Kong appear to be starting a march towards new highs. With borrowing rates so low, rental prices ever increasing, and asset prices in Asia rising, Hong Kong residents seem to be finding property to be an attractive investment, and one which will benefit them as asset prices across the region rise. In a good article about Hong Kong property prices http://www.chinadailyapac.com/article/hkma-worries-over-renewed-property-market-asset-bubble  and an eventual asset bubble, Chinadaily published the following points: Local home prices have already advanced more than 5 percent in the last month. The Centa-City Leading Index (CCL), an index used to gauge the local home market’s price trend, rose for the fourth consecutive weeks for the first time in 52-week that pushed the CCL to a 24-week high. The 99.17 reading represented a cumulative surge of 5.07 percent of local home prices in

A reader of this site, commenting on my post containing a  Park Island Property Price Chart , requested that rather than provide an overall summary of Park Island prices, that I provide a chart for each Phase of Park Island. So, below I am now attaching Price Graphs for Park Island Phase 1, Park Island Phase 2, Park Island Phase 3, and Park Island Phase 5. The period covered is the last 2 years. (There is no Park Island Phase 4 as "4" is considered an unlucky number in Hong Kong). Park Island Phase 1 Prices Park Island Phase 2 Prices Park Island Phase 3 Prices Park Island Phase 5 Prices The line shows the average prices per square foot for each transaction, and the bar graph in red shows transaction volume. PS - I also recently received a comment from a reader encouraging me to post things of interest about Park Island other than just comments about prices. I have taken note of that comment, and hope I can strike the right balance between people who are

I have no idea what language this is, but it came to my attention today that they had featured this site for information about Park Island http://hongkong.info.pl/to-tak-jak-w-chinach/ . If someone knows what language this is do let me know! Polish or Russian perhaps? I did notice some interesting sites mentioned on that site. One is http://www.bigwhiteguy.com/  which is about a gwailo living in Hong Kong and his various observations on life in HK. The other is a site related to Lamma Island called http://www.lamma.com.hk/ . This is a great site related to Lamma Island and the Lamma Island community. I wish we had something similar for Park Island.

Price Graph for Park Island, Ma Wan, Hong Kong This chart shows prices for Park Island per square foot, from January 2010 to March 2012. As you can see, prices stopped rising for the last 9 months of 2011 (staying at around $5500 psf), and transaction volume fell during the last 6 months of 2011. See this comment on Hong Kong Property Prices I made last year for a more detailed explanation of what lead to the stablizing in prices and the decline in transaction volume in 2011. So far in 2012, it seems prices have started to pick up again, as well as transaction volume, although I am not sure yet if this is a short term effect due to the Anacapri launch or not. Let's see. I still think my predictions in the article referred to above will be correct.

Ancapri Club House on Park Island Above is an illustration of the Anacapri facilities on Park Island, including the Apacapri pool and BBQ facilities on Anacapri. I find the club house very nice, especially the pool facilities. The pool and outdoor common area has a classy modern design, and is of a high quality. One thing I often look at with a new development is to consider how it will look in 10 years time. For some developments, facilities look nice brand new, but then look terrible after a few years of aging, as materials used start to decay. For Anacapri, my sense is that long-lasting and high qualitiy materials have been used. So the pool area and club house should "age well" and I think will retain their classy look with the passage of time. What is not shown here, and probably the most spectacular feature, is the way the pool looks over to the ocean when you are in it, creating the "infinity pool" effect. Many pools in Hong Kong face a wall, or othe

My recent post post about the history of Ma Wan  History of Ma Wan  inspired a friend of mine who came from overseas in Hong Kong, to take a big hike around Ma Wan Island. I took a bunch of photos during our walk, some of which came out really well, and if I do say do myself, some are actually quite artistic. I am going to post these up in various parts on this blog, along with my comments. I hope my photos will encourage people to come over and spend a day hiking on Ma Wan. There are really some quite spectacular and unique things to see! Hiking up Ma Wan Island This is the path we took to the top of the Peak on Ma Wan. It's quite an easy walk. You go under the Tsing Ma bridge from Park Island, and find your way up the mountain.  I spotted this dog, which at first thought was a wild dog as it was timid, but I then saw its owner coming the other way. I actually saw only very few people during most parts of the walk. Park Island Estate You can see here the view from the

I came across an interesting article about the history of Ma Wan by Phillip Jones in a book called "Hong Kong Discovery". His article called "The Road to Salvation" contains historical photos of the island, and notes that for most of the last 200 years Ma Wan was an isolated community, basically sustained by farming and fishing. He talks about a visit by the British in 1794, the occasional visit by pirates, and how there was a Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs checkpoint set up on Ma Wan in 1897. He writes about the Chan family, who are still influential land owners on the island, the changes faced by the fishing and shrimp industries in the 1950s and 1960s and HK made its change to it modern economy, and also about the history and changes brought about by the Lantau Link, and the rapid development that occurred once Ma Wan became "connected" to the rest of Hong Kong. Interestingly the article itself is now part of history - I think it was probably wri

The most common way to rent an apartment on Park Island is just to come over, and visit one of the estate agents on the Island and ask them to show you apartments in your price range. Take a look at a range of apartments, make a note of the ones you like (based on size, views, configuration, etc) and then make offers. There are still some bargains here, compared to HK Island.  Hong Kong Property Advertisement  If you see adverts for property in Chinese like this, its quite easy to work out. Here for example, they are asking $35,000 for a 1238 square foot apartment on Park Island. All the agents speak English, so I would suggest you just go in and chat to them and see what they can show you. And don't forget to negotiate. Its usual to seek 10% off the asking price on a property advertised for rent. If you come across as a desirable tenant, the landlord might well be willing to accept a lower rent in return for knowing the place will be well looked after and that the rent wi

Interesting to read today that Sun Hun Kai (the developer of Park Island) is likely to price its new Tuen Mun project at a minimum of $13,000 psf. The development called Century Gateway is due for completion in the third quarter of 2013. It also appears that someone was a little naughty in advertising the development for sale before official approval had been granted. See the article here: Century Gateway Apartments for Sale If these prices are correct, it again makes Park Island look remarkably cheap. Sooner or later price arbitrage must take place, with Park Island coming up in price to other similar developments, of course taking into account all factors such as location, transport, schooling, facilities, etc.

Park Island prices are close to record highs, (but still very cheap in my opinion). Park Island Property Prices As you can see from the graph, prices on Park Island seem to be maintaining their gradual accent. The correction in October-December 2011 was I think due to the panic over Greece defaulting on its debt. As Park Island is very much end-user driven, rather then speculative, I think prices will continue, over time to steadily rise. Perhaps not as sharply as places like the Mid Levels during "hot" times, but also they will not decline as sharply during "cold" times.

Ocean view from Park Island Here is a quite impressive Park Island photo (I took from another website) of a night view from Park Island across the ocean. Really quite stunning on a clear night. If you are after an apartment in Hong Kong with ocean views, consider Park Island as a very  affordable option.

Some cool work done here by Layers Painting Workshop on a Park Island apartment. If you are interested in having something like this done call them to arrange a proposal (details below): EMAIL: layers@layerspaint.com CANDY: 9280 3250 ZOEY: 6108 4784 Layers Painting Workshop Apartment Painting Park Island Apartment done by Layers Painting Workshop

We have snakes on our island (and I'm referring not to the real-state agents, but rather REAL snakes). I took photos of this snake on Ma Wan beach on Saturday. OK, well its actually just the skin of a snake, but if that's the skin, I would hate to imagine the size of the owner of the skin! If anyone sees the actual snake, please send me a photo. I am not sure how big snakes in Hong Kong can get, but this was a big one. A Hong Kong snake skin A snake on Ma Wan beach A snake on Park Island beach Close up of the snake's head

Some photos from inside the Anacapri development on Park Island. Photo of Anacapri Lobby Photo inside Anacapri

Below is the price list for Anacapri on Park Island released today by Sun Hung Kai. The list is for the "middle apartments", which means those which are not ground floor with garden units, or top floor with roof units. Prices seem reasonable, and are priced at between 7000 to 8000 per square foot. So for a 1000 square foot apartment in Anacapri, you are looking at around HKD $7-8 million. Really pretty good value in my opinion, and lower that what I had thought they would be given the high quality of the development. Based on feedback from agents, it seems he top floor and ground floor prices are expected to be around 14,000 to 19,000 per square foot. Anacapri Price List Anacapri Price List Anacapri Price List from Sun Hung Kai I wonder what this relatively low pricing of Anacapri reveals about the Hong Kong property market? Property transactions are low in Hong Kong and for the time being, banks require 50% or more deposit at the moment for mortgages, which I

I was sent this video of Anacapri on Park Island from a Ma Wan resident. It seems to have been put together by a Park Island estate agent.

It looks like the Phase 6 development will be called AnaCapri. Here is the link of the Anacapri website: Anacapri Park Island . The villas have been named Block 32 Park Island (Sun Ocean), Block 33 Park Island (Luna Ocean), and Block 35 Park Island (Aqua Ocean). They missed out Block 34, due to Chinese superstitions about the number which is considered unlucky. It seems that prices for the Phase 6 Park Island villas will be put here: Park Island Phase 6 Prices . Transaction records from Sun Hun Kai for Anacapri: Anacapri transaction records . Centadata is also keeping Anacapri transaction data: AnaCapri Price Graph . AnaCapri Full details and the sales brochure of the Anacapri development on Ma Wan are here: Park Island Phase 6 information .  About AnaCapri I will post up more details soon along with a few further thoughts. I am asking a sales agent to show me around next week and I'll snap a few photos. The AnaCapri website is http://www.anacapri.com.hk/ .

Article about Park Island This article about the new villas on Park Island (phase 6) states as follows: Floor plans will be released in the next few days, and maybe will start selling next week. Prices are expected to be above $10,000 per square foot. More than 500 people have registered an interest in buying. Standard size of the villas are 1200 to 1500 sqft. Duplux is 2000 sqft. 6 units have swimming pools and gardens as big as 4400sqft. Total of 65 units are available .

Nearly complete. Looks impressive! The Ma Wan locals in the village certainly don't seem to be short of cash building structures like this!  Most likely thanks to generous contributions from Sun Hung Kai who bought them out I suspect! Ma Wan Community Centre

Always interesting to see how many couples choose the beach on Park Island as a romantic spot to snuggle with their loved one :) It's great to see people from HK side coming over to Park Island to enjoy themselves, but it's shame some people leave empty soft drink bottles and candles etc stuck in the sand. Why pick a nice location, only to trash it and spoil it for others. Even if the beach is cleaned each morning, why not just make the effort to remove any rubbish yourself.

I met a Park Island property agent this afternoon. Here are some photos of Phase 6 Park Island from a brochure he gave me. The apartment I like are the ones with the lawns and pool, although in terms of buying I would almost prefer the luxury apartments on the upper floors of the earlier phases on Park Island. Park Island Phase 6 Phase 6 Park Island Photos of Tsing Ma Bridge from Ma Wan Photo of Sham Tseng viewed from Park Island, Ma Wan Photos of the Park Island Phase 6 private swimming pools Park Island Phase 6 apartment details Park Island Phase 6 private garden Park Island Phase 6 layout Park Island Phase 6 duplex apartment plan