The Hong Kong government on Wednesday conducted its first land auction in fiscal year 2011 -- starting from April 1, 2011, selling a lot at the high end of estimated prices, which reveals the continuing hot atmosphere in the housing market.

The around 1900-square-meter site, locating in Hung Hom, attracted nine developers to bid, among which Nan Feng Group, a well-known local property developer, won the lot together with its partner for an offer of 1,525 million HK dollars (196.27 million U. S. dollars), about 69 percent up from its start price of 900 million HK dollars, also close to its highest estimate of 1,600 million HK dollars.

Graham Ross, the auctioneer, said he was quite content about the result of the half-hour auction, which showed developers' strong interests for the property as well as the market needs.

The residential lot sold on Wednesday was the first of the 12 sites the government had planned to auction from April to June, which included nine residential and three commercial lands. The residential sites are expected to provide about 2,650 flats. "Our target is to ensure the stable and healthy development of the property market for the benefit of the community," said the city's Financial Secretary John Tsang earlier this month.

After keeping climbing up in past two years, Hong Kong's housing market still soared in 2011, with its February's overall housing price reaching the peak level in 1997.

To clamp down on property prices, the city government has vowed to increase land supply as well as curbing speculative activities in the market.

"I shall not hesitate to introduce further measures to reduce the risk of a property bubble as and when necessary," Tsang said.

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