A luxury apartment in Hong Kong that sold for a record HK$594.7 million (Dh281.8m) days before Christmas, has become the most expensive flat in the city and possibly in Asia.
An unidentified buyer paid more than HK$103,700 per-square foot for the 5,732 square-foot unit at the luxury 39 Conduit Road apartment tower in the southern Chinese city’s upmarket Mid-Levels residential area, according to local media reports.
The condominium, on the 46th floor with a view of the Victoria Harbour and a rooftop with an area of 1,754 square feet, had a list price of HK$646.48m on the developer Henderson Land Properties’ website.
The price beats the previous record HK$470m paid for a luxury unit which takes up the entire eighth floor of the Opus Hong Kong, a 12-storey residential building designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry, in 2012.
This comes as analysts said a US interest rate rise could put an end to the housing boom in the Chinese city which retains a decades-old peg with the US dollar.
The Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA warned the residential market was at a “turning point”, with prices possibly dropping 17 per cent by 2017, while other firms have tipped falls of up to 30 per cent.
Hong Kong’s de facto central bank last month raised its base interest rate by 25 points to 0.7 per cent after the US Federal Reserve announced its first rate increase in more than nine years.
But the chief analyst for Midland Realty, Buggle Lau, says the record-breaking purchase does not reflect the bigger picture of the overall property market in the city.
“The super-rich, I don’t think the small increase in the interest rates has any impact on their purchasing power,” Mr Lau says.
“This is exceptional, it can’t reflect the whole market,” which he described overall as “sluggish”.
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The National staff expands on what Hong Kong's 39 Conduit Road and the city's property market has to offer:
What’s so special about 39, Conduit Road?
As well as views of the city, the luxury building is famed for its “first-rate concierge services” with every whim and desire catered for. This includes a 24-hour concierge and household care service, private jet and luxury yacht chartering, private chef and party arrangement as well as a business assistant on tap and housekeeping.
When was it built?
Construction on the 46-storey single tower started in 2006 and was completed in March 2009. The developer, Henderson Land Development, first secured international attention for the project in 2009 when it announced it had sold a five-bedroom flat for a HK$9,169 per square foot. Then in April last year, a company director with a Singaporean passport paid HK$433.8m or HK$93,000 per sq ft for a 4,664 sq ft duplex.
Tell me more about property prices in Hong Kong.
Famous for its sky-high rent and super-rich tycoons, prices have more than doubled in six years because of record low interest rates and a flood of wealthy buyers from mainland China.
So how is the luxury end faring now?
According to Ricacorp Properties, the number of transactions for luxury homes at 35 housing estates dropped 25 per cent to 39 deals last month – down from 52 in October.
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