A site was sold at a government land auction in Macau yesterday for 555 million patacas (US$70 million), 10 times higher than the reserve price. The 18,000-square-foot site had a reserve price of 55 million patacas(US$7 million).

A total of two connected residential sites in Fai Chi Kei, located at the northern part of Macau peninsula, were sold through tender at Macau’s second land auction since the 1999 handover.

Macau General Association of Real Estate president Chong Siu-kin told reporters yesterday he expects the retail price to reach up to 5,500 patacas per square foot when the site is developed, predicting that the auction price will push housing prices in Macau up by 25 percent this year.

Another site, with an area of 32,000 sq ft, had a reserve price of 95 million patacas and was sold for 867 million.

A Macau developer bid successfully for the two sites saying they have development potential.

But New World Development (0017) executive director Stewart Leung Chi-kin, who joined the land auction, said the transaction price was high.

The Land Committee said it had 37 tenders for the land auction.

Macau’s last land auction, in 2004, drew more than three times the reserve price for a site of 1,000 square meters, which sold for about 68 million patacas.

Courtesy :: The Standard