Interest rates uncertainty blamed for tender failure

Housing Secretary Winnie Ho says uncertainty over interest rates put developers off bidding for a subsidised housing plot in Chai Wan. The government on Wednesday rejected the only bid for the site on Cheung Man Road, as the tenderer failed to meet the reserve price. The plot is earmarked for at least 700 units under the Private Subsidised Flat Pilot Scheme. On an RTHK programme on Thursday, Ho said uncertainty over rate cuts affected developers' interest in the site. "Initially everyone thought interest rate cuts might be [made] in the middle of the year, around June. But that didn't happen. Now everyone thinks there will only be signs of a downward trend at the end of the year," she said. The secretary said there was no concrete timetable for putting the site out to tender again. Lau Chun-kong from the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors said on the same programme that the Cheung Man Road plot is in an ideal location, being as it is near an MTR station. But a slope at the site would lead to additional costs, he said. Lau said the government could make the plot more appealing to developers if it reduced the amount of facilities they would be required to build there.