Macau's priciest pad
Asking price for the top floor “showcase” duplex in The Waterside is a rather more modest HKD250,000 per month, for a 4550 sq.ft fully furnished apartment. A simplex with 4740 sq.ft is the biggest unit.
Top-end property in Macau has had a roller coaster ride, lurching from boom to bust and back over the last 20 years, ebbing and flowing as speculators and more recently casino operators and their expatriate staff have run it up and then down just as rapidly.
The Waterside units haven’t exactly jumped off the shelves, having been released back in 2010 and now only 88% occupied. The 59-apartment tower takes up the entire Tower Six in One Central Residences, Macau.
Flats start at HKD $55,000 per month for 2,270 sq ft. That’s a leasing price staring at HK$26 per sq. ft. They are for lease only.
The question of whether the flats were all leased to mainlanders brought the rather nervous response that “70% of the tenants are businessmen or VIP room operators from the mainland.” So yes, in other words.
So the gushing PR blurb reads rather oddly when it says:"The Hong Kong market remains one of the most important for The Waterside in further elevating positioning as the most highly sought-after residences in Macau.” Wishful thinking if it’s already nearly full up with mainland chaps. And it begs the question why would a Hong Kong person want to spend so much on rent in Macau? The view across to the bridge to Taipa from Macau itself is very nice, on the two weeks in the year when it is clear enough to see anything through the dense fug and fog.
As well as flash interiors, residents enjoy a 24-hour personalised concierge service, and membership of The Waterside Club, (benefits unspecified), as well as use of the One Central Clubhouse and facilities.
The One Central is also home to The Mandarin Oriental hotel and of course, an A-list brand shopping mall. Handy if you run out of Louis Vuitton handbags in the middle of the night, I suppose.
Moon Faced
They look innocently small and innocuous, but beware. Don’t even count the calories in a regular size version - somewhere around a thousand.
Maxim‘s has launched a collection of mooncake products made with expensive ingredients such as goose liver paste and Spanish ham. The collection, priced at HK$1,388 per box, is only available in the mainland this year, we learn. Foie gras flavoured moon cakes, can they be serious? These must be the two most densely calorific foods in the entire world, per kilo, bar none, and now they are united in a moon cake. Maxim’s way of culling the rich?
