Hong Kong Land Fetches $528 Million at Auction, Beating Analyst Estimates

Billionaire Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. paid a higher-than-estimated HK$7.61 billion ($979 million) for two Hong Kong development sites, signaling confidence in the property market four days after the government stepped up efforts to cool home prices.

Cheung Kong bought a property in the Ho Man Tin district for HK$4.1 billion and a plot in Hung Hom for HK$3.51 billion at a government land auction today. Both sites fetched more than the highest forecast in a Bloomberg survey of seven analysts.

The prices defy the government’s Aug. 13 announcement that it will tighten mortgage rules and boost land supply to curb a 45 percent jump in housing prices since the start of last year. Financial Secretary John Tsang said home values are approaching the level of 1997, the height of a previous bubble that was followed by a six-year slump.