The difference between "published price" and "actual price" can reach 25%.The highest penalty may up to HKD500,000. (By Yan Lunle) Recently, a number of new projects have frequently sold the small and medium-sized houses by tender, which are criticized by the market as highly opaque sales method. Now comes the trouble. The Sales of First-hand Residential Properties Authority (the SRPA) recently filed a prosecution against Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), saying that SHKP did not list complete payment terms in the transaction record book of StMartin, which is a violation. It is known, the discounted price of individual houses of StMartin can up to be 25% less than the "published price", and the hidden data will make the market has a illusion that the selling price is still at a high level, affecting the judgment in home purchasing. There will be a Magistrate Court hearing in Kwun Tong on July 9, and the fine would be HKD500,000 if it convicts. The Sales of First-hand Residential Properties Authority (the SRPA) expressed yesterday, they had found the sales techniques and transaction data listed in tender from some individual new project were insufficient, which may violate the residential properties first hand sales ordinance, so they take the initiative to investigate the case. After investigation and consultation with the Attorney General, they decided to prosecute the seller of the relevant development project. The actual rebate rate in transactions is not disclosure. It is known, the relevant residential project is ‘StMartin’ at Pak Shek Kok and the developer is SHKP. According to the SRPA, the prosecution involves SHKP hadn’t listed complete information on the payment terms in the transaction record book after put on sale the StMartin on March 22 this year. Looking up the data, the transaction information uploaded at the time only mentioned the stamp duty cash rebate ranged from 3% to 10%, but did not disclose the actual rebate rate of each transaction, making it difficult for the market to understand the actual transaction price after deducting the rebate. . The tender sale of houses has been strongly criticized by the market because of the extremely low transparency. The Real Estate Developers Association was also forced to hold a meeting early last month to discuss and announced the "Three Measures of Self-discipline Measures" to control the members on tender sale. However, the case has aroused the concern of the Government. Last month, the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Chen Fan, also publicly stated that the tender selling methods of some individual project was not satisfied and prosecution cannot be ruled out. In the end, under the pressure of multiple parties, SHKP uploaded the tender documents including the bid price and the rebate information. Under the residential properties first hand sales ordinance, if the seller does not list the payment terms of the residential property in the transaction record book of the development project, including any discount on the selling price, and the gifts, financial concessions or benefits provided in connection with the purchase, it constitutes a crime, and is liable on conviction to a fine of HKD500,000. There will be a Magistrate Court hearing in Kwun Tong on July 9. SHKP: Follow up the event closely. SHKP responded yesterday, the group is studying the relevant prosecution at this stage and will closely follow up on the event. SHKP reiterated, they had always attached importance to the sales practices in compliance with the statutory requirements, so that buyers can clearly grasp the sales information and procedures to ensure the rights of buyers are protected. The Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Real Estates Developers' Association, Mr Leung Chi-kin, said that the case was not against for the form of tender sale, but about the transaction records information disclosure and so on. They will issue new guidelines to members next week to initially recommended that houses of three-bedroom or more can be sold in the form of tenders. He reiterated that he had reached a consensus with the members earlier, such as optimizing the disclosure of the transaction book, and hoped that the members would be self-disciplined and believed that they could respond to the market's concern about the transparency of the first hand property sales. The SRPA appeals to be adequately prepared before tender. A spokesman for the SRPA expressed, the Government would seriously deal with all the cases of sales practices and lack of transparency in the transaction data, also would continue to closely monitor the sales of first-hand residential properties being sold by tender, in order to assure the information transparency in tender sales is same as to that in public sales by prices list among the first hand property sales. The SRPA also pointed, a publicity advertisement will be launched in the future to remind prospective purchasers to know well the transaction prices, rebates and concessions of similar houses referring to the transaction record book of the project, before they take part in the bidding for the first hand property. In addition, it is also important to note that the rebate may affect the number and amount of mortgages; And make careful consideration before bid, since the decision to give up the purchase of the house after winning the bid will result in the forfeiture of the deposit.