SUN Hung Kai Properties, Hong Kong's biggest developer by market value, is set to launch a luxury residential project in Shanghai's Pudong New Area on Friday, nearly seven years after it acquired the land.

The first-phase units of Shanghai Arch will be sold at an average of between 150,000 yuan and 160,000 yuan (US$23,809 and US$25,396) per square meter, said Shanghai's official real estate website.

The website showed the starting price for the first-phase units is 93,100 yuan per square meter, with the most costly homes - mainly top-floor duplex apartments with private swimming pool - costing as much as 264,000 yuan per square meter.

The developer can cut its asking prices by a maximum 20 percent, the website said.

The first phase of Shanghai Arch, a three-phase development on Puming Road, comprises 195 units of two to four bedrooms ranging from 140 square meters to 350 square meters.

In June 2005, Sun Hung Kai paid 3.185 billion yuan, or 20,178 yuan a square meter, for the riverside residential site, the highest price in the city for a single land plot. The developer didn't start construction until June 2009, the Oriental Morning Post said yesterday.