Undeterred by government austerity measures, Sun Hung Kai Properties yesterday launched its luxury residential project in Shanghai at a record price.
Victor Lui Ting, executive director of Sun Hung Kai Real Estate Agency, said a 300 square metre penthouse at Shanghai Arch on the Huangpu River in Pudong, would be offered at 264,000 yuan (HK$323,780) per square metre.
A successful sale 'will break the record per square metre for the mainland', said an agent, who asked not to be named.
In November 2009, a 587.41 square metre flat at Tomson Riviera, a nearby luxury estate, sold for 160,844 yuan per square metre or 96.09 million yuan, the most expensive flat on the mainland at the time.
Lui said the first batch of 100 flats, not including the penthouse, would be offered for 93,100 yuan per square metre and 150,000 yuan per square metre next month. They range in size from 150 square metres to 280 sq metres.
He said SHKP would generate two billion yuan if all 100 flats were sold. There are 195 apartments in the development.
The sale came amid calls from the National Development and Reform Commission, the mainland's top planning agency, for the government to expand a pilot property tax based on sale prices to other cities to speed up financial and tax reform. Shanghai and Chongqing introduced the tax a year ago.