Former government quarters offer redevelopment potential
Some prime former government quarters in Caldecott Road, a residential area near Piper's Hill in Kowloon, were put up for tender yesterday - the third project for the city's developers to compete over.
The Government Property Agency is offering 46 flats and 46 car parking spaces at the site, which represent about 96 per cent of the 48-unit building - the remaining two units were sold to individual buyers several years ago.
It means that whoever wins the tender has the option of forcing those two owners to sell their flats in an auction in an attempt to acquire the whole project for redevelopment, or renovating the 46 units for resale.
The total saleable area of the flats is about 125,626 square feet, with each averaging about 2,700 sq ft. The tender closes on March 5.
According to Centaline Property Agency, property prices of nearby Caldecott Hill and the Caldecott range between HK$6,503 and HK$7,825 per square foot.
Surveyor Albert So Chun-hin estimates the properties are worth up to HK$1.01 billion or HK$8,000 per square foot.
'The selling price of the project will be less than HK$10,000 per square foot as the building is too old,' he said. It was built in 1964.
It is a third option in the land market. The Lands Department is selling a site in Tseung Kwan O on February 22, and the tender for MTR Corp's HK$20 billion Austin Station project will close on February 24.
New World Development chairman Cheng Yu-tung said yesterday his company would go it alone in bidding for the Austin Station residential project and would join the land auction for the Tseung Kwan O site.
So expects bidding for the three projects to be aggressive.
The Caldecott Road units were first put up for tender in 2005, attracting bids from six developers. However, they were withdrawn, as none of the bids was deemed adequate.
