26/6/2018-2

The number of bids entered by the government

The Hong Kong Government may launch vacant tax and other property market measures this week. The number of letters of intent for the third phase of Wong Chuk Hang Station still stands at 36, reflecting that the market is very interested in MTR (066) projects. However, taking history as a mirror, once the atmosphere of the property market has turned sharply, railway projects may change from “everyone is competing for bids” to “a lack of people’s interest.”

As a matter of fact, the number of letters of intent of the MTR project and the number of final bids have greatly varied in the past. It is necessary to mention that Tianshuiwei Light Rail Tianrong Station has received a total of 16 development letters of intent in January 2013. In that year, the number of letters of intent was already small, but in February, the closing was a surprising one. The record of entry.

Tianrong Station received only 3 tenders in December 2013 for the second tender, which ended in a “flowing bid” and was the second time in history that the “flowing bid” was a MTR project. The project was relaunched at the beginning of 2015 and received 21 letters of intent. However, by the end of the February closing, only 4 bids were received and they were eventually won by Xindi (016).

Except for the location of the project deviating from the urban area, the two “flow targets” of the Tianrong station project all had a common point, that is, the atmosphere of the property market was turning down. In 2013, the Hong Kong Government introduced measures to combat stamp tax on speculative properties, and the property market shrank. Until the first half of 2014, the atmosphere of the property market became more cautious and directly affected developers’ desire to enter the standard.

Today’s Executive Council discussed the issue of re-inviting the property market. Based on past experience, if the government moves to curb the property market and the market sentiment reverses, the number of bids for the Wong Chuk Hang Station Phase III project will inevitably drop significantly. Hong Kong Commercial Daily reporter Zeng Haorong