Home sales during the Lunar New Year holiday nearly came to a standstill even though developers offered 'festival sweeteners' such as lai see packets to lure buyers.

Henderson Land Development, Chinachem Group and Sino Land offered red packets of between HK$28,000 and HK$68,800 to home buyers during the festive period.

The new year holiday is generally slow, but Hong Kong Property Services (Agency) said only four units were sold during the five-day holiday from January 24. That compared with about 10 units a year ago and 50 in 2004.

South China Morning Post