Hong Kong's Lee snaps up property for $185 million

The apartment complex is the city's most expensive luxury real estate purchase this year

Commercial and residential buildings stand in Hong Kong. The number of Hong Kong residents with at least ten million Hong Kong dollars (Dh4.68 million) in liquid assets, bank deposits, mutual funds, sShow more

Hong Kong paper tycoon Raymond Lee Man Chun, and his wife, Wong Man Yi, made the city's most expensive luxury real estate purchase this year, paying HK$1.45 billion (Dh680 million) for a nine-apartment complex in Repulse Bay.

Mr Lee, the chairman and co-founder of Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing, and his wife, bought the property through their privately owned company Winner Progress Limited, according to the South China Morning Post, citing land registry and company records.

American International Assurance, the seller of the three-story property at 8 Headland Road, had paid HK$20.2 million for it in 1985, according to the paper.

Each apartment has an average of 2,485 square feet (230 square metres), working out to HK$65,000 per square foot, a price described as “reasonable” by Vincent Cheung, managing director at Vincorn Consulting and Appraisal.

“It is definitely the biggest transaction in the luxury property market this year,” Mr Cheung told the paper.

Mr Cheung said that demand remains strong for super deluxe homes in Hong Kong due to limited supply. Repulse Bay, in the southern part of Hong Kong Island, is one of the world's most expensive residential areas.

Hong Kong's property market has made a recent comeback with prices climbing for 10 straight weeks, rebounding from a slide that began last August.

Mr Lee, 47, has been an avid investor in the luxury property market for many years. He paid HK$176m in 2007 for a house in The Peak neighbourhood, selling it for HK$420m in 2015.

Lee & Man, founded in 1994, reported HK$4.88bn in net profit last year.