Pushing Hong Kong rents to new heights of fantasy
THE most expensive home ever offered for lease, at a record $430,000 per month, is now available on The Peak, awaiting only a willing tenant.
Should that tenant be found, further support will be lent to a number of surveys that have shown Hong Kong to be the most expensive place in the world to rent a home.
The 4,800-square-foot house on Middle Gap Road has four bedrooms and two reception rooms and was set in a private garden, Isabel Michie, residential director at property consultants First Pacific Davies, said. 'It's the highest asking rent I have ever known,' she said.
The asking rent for the property was far in excess of other expensive leases on offer at the moment. There were a number of leases available at $280,000 per month, which were the next group of most expensive rental properties on the market, she said.
Jan McNally, residential director at property consultants Richard Ellis, said the owner would probably find a tenant prepared to pay between $350,000 and $400,000 a month. The house benefited from a good location and was built to a high standard, she explained.
But potential tenants may want to consider that the $5.2 million yearly rent for the property could buy a four-bedroom, two-bathroom, two-reception-room house in London's plush Knightsbridge district.
Alternatively, a prospective tenant may decide to put his or her feet up in a double room at Macau's Westin Resort for a year, which would be less expensive than spending one month at 28 Middle Gap Road.
The latest survey to show Hong Kong is the most expensive place in the world in which to rent a home was published by the Union Bank of Switzerland last month. It shows Hong Kong tenants pay an average of $64,680 per month for modern luxury apartments, two-thirds more than in Tokyo, the second most expensive location.
The 19th century British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston must be turning in his grave. In 1841, he dismissed Hong Kong as 'a barren island with hardly a house upon it'.
