Former Swire Properties chairman and CEO Keith Kerr’s first project in Sheung Wan has is nearly half-sold
Former Swire Properties chairman Keith Kerr’s The Development Studio (tds) has completed its first real estate project with nearly half of the units already sold.
Facing the Soho entertainment neighborhood in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan area, 28 Aberdeen Street is a residential development targeting young urban professionals. Just a ten-minute walk from the city’s fifth tallest building, The Center, the 40-unit project is mostly comprised of one-bedroom units of around 410 square feet.
tds Has Three More Developments on the Way
The project designed by Hong Kong-based architects Wong & Ouyang has already sold 19 units, or 47.5 percent of the available homes, since it first went on sale in March last year. “In view of its timeless design and prime location, 28 Aberdeen St. has drawn tremendous interest from the market,” said Winson Cheng, Senior Development Manager at the company at a press conference. The units were sold at $33,000 per square foot on average, generating HK$250 million cash for the company, said the developer. Buyers are believed to be mostly investors, Cheng added.
Like many sell-side spokespeople, Cheng said he is prudently optimistic on Hong Kong’s property market as his company gears up for further launches. The nine-year-old company has three upcoming projects in Sheung Wan, the Mid-Levels — an affluent area above Central, and Kowloon Tong, another traditional luxury residential area in Kowloon. The launch timing for the upcoming projects will depend on construction progress and market reaction, although the company said it expects to start selling a project at year-end, without specifying a development.
95 percent of 28 Aberdeen St.’s flats are one-bedroom units with sizes of 407 to 410 square feet
Boutique Developer Targets Small, High-End Projects
tds was founded in 2009 by Keith Kerr, a former CEO and chairman of Swire Properties. The developer targets young professionals and investors, with a strategy of focusing on small projects in both the residential and commercial sectors, to avoid competing directly with the city’s bigger builders, explained the company’s founder in an interview last April. “We don’t aspire to compete with the large established players. Their firepower is much stronger. We have been focusing on smaller projects which perhaps are under the radar of the big players,” said the real estate veteran.
During his 35 years at Swire Properties, Kerr had overseen the company’s development of such upscale landmarks as Pacific Place, Festival Walk and Taikoo Place.
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