39 Conduit Road - Transparent or Not?
Henderson Land announced in October 2009 that 24 flats at their newly developed residential site on 39 Conduit Road had just been sold and one of them for a record of over HK$ 70,000/sq. ft..
Until today 29 March, 2010 - only 1 of the 24 transactions have completed, the remainder are yet to be completed. The Development Bureau’s 25 March press release is as follows:-
With regard to the transactions of 24 units of “39 Conduit Road”, a
Government spokesman said today (March 25) that the Lands Department had
received the reply to its inquiries from companies of the Henderson Land
Development Co Ltd (the Companies) yesterday (March 24). “The Companies
replied that they had entered into a verbal agreement with the 24
purchasers to extend the completion of the sale and purchase for a period
of between two to four months, therefore no assignment had been executed or
delivered to the Land Registry for registration. Also, the Companies said
that the completion of the sales might be further extended,” the spokesman
said. “Given that the Companies had entered into new agreements with
the purchasers verbally and could not be definite about whether the
transactions could eventually be completed, the Lands Department issued
another letter to the Companies today (March 25) requesting further
information. “We will continue to closely monitor whether the
transactions will eventually be completed and whether there is any
anomaly.”
In normal sales and purchase of properties, the buyer and seller enter into agreement in writing and the buyer usually pays a deposit to guarantee the purchase and if the buyer fails to complete then he/she will forfeit the deposit paid and if the seller fails to complete then the seller has to return the deposit to the buyer and pay a compensation fee equivalent to the deposit. It is peculiar that no deposits have been forfeited for these transactions and furthermore the standard completion period is 2 months and it seems peculiar that Henderson should only negotiate the extension for completion when pressured by the government to provide answers 5 months after the buyers and Henderson Land entered into contract.
Moreover, it seems peculiar that all 24 buyers bought using British Virgin Island companies or other vehicles whose buyers cannot be looked up, so the identity of the buyers are to-date unknown.
Lastly, according to information from the Companies Registry, different shell companies were used to buy the 24 units. All of them used the same law firm, Lo & Lo Solicitors, also registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Tags: 39 conduit road, bvi, hong kong, law firm, lawyers, lo & lo, record property price, same lawyer, 天匯
April 20th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Eugene Fung of the Housing Departent (who’s office is on 33 Fat Kwong Street, Homantin) is now handling the case.
I have tried to contact him 3 times and each time he is out for a meeting and is not available for comments.
All the names of the buyers and the deposit amounts that they have paid have now been sent to the government. Legco have been aware of some an inherent obfuscation and discussed the issue on 27 November, 2009 yet no action has ensued to try to regulate the developers deliberate tactics in misleading the public - minutes are as follows:-
Hon Starry LEE Wai-king (Oral Reply)
It has been reported that in October this year, a special unit
at 39 Conduit Road, a residential development project in
Mid-levels West, was sold at an “astronomical price” of
over $71,000 per square foot, breaking world records. Yet,
there have been comments querying that since the buyer of
that unit has also bought four lower floor units at the same
time, it is doubtful whether the developer has transferred the
property prices of the lower floor units to that of the special
unit, so that the price per square foot of that unit is much
higher than that of an ordinary unit, so as to mislead
prospective buyers. Regarding the regulation of sales
practices for properties, will the Government inform this
Council:
(a) of the total number of cases in the past three years in
which developers had to shoulder criminal or civil
liabilities for releasing misleading information,
committing misrepresentation or fraudulent acts
during the sale of properties, as well as the details of
the cases;
(b) which government department is currently
responsible for handling complaints about
developers selling properties using misleading
practices, and what legislation regulates such kinds
of activities; whether the authorities will investigate
if the aforesaid transaction involved releasing
misleading information; if they will, of the details; if
not, the reasons for that; and
(c) whether the authorities will consider setting up an
organization similar to the Securities and Futures
Commission to investigate and monitor developers’
sales practices for properties, so as to maintain a
healthy development of the residential property
market and prevent small investors from bearing
unnecessary risks and losses; if they will, of the
details; if not, the reasons for that?
June 18th, 2010 at 2:08 am
Even through we all knew from the beginning that the sales were fabricated - by us not setting laws against certain practices - it just reconfirms the fact that we have a puppet government that are controlled by property developers.
July 4th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
I want to wager 1:100 that the police investigations will not find anything. They are just doing it for show…. Lee Shau Kee and them lot have the top lawyers working for them - they are untouchable. They control the government and legislators…..
July 27th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
Yeah I agree with Sigh - our government should legislate against unfair sales practice. Have you noticed that everything Eva Cheng says is to protect the developers or favour them - she must be well paid by the developers. It’s disgusting how things have become.
March 19th, 2011 at 9:24 pm
I wished to thank you for this great learn!! I positively enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to take a look at new stuff you put up
June 24th, 2011 at 5:33 pm
Just located this url Hong Kong Voice - An Independent platform for Hong Kong people to make their voices heard via Bing… what a nice thing! Thanks Easy Web Site Builder
September 28th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
I have been so bweiledred in the past but now it all makes sense!