Henderson pays US$3 billion for world’s costliest land plot at Murray Road in Hong Kong
The developer, owned by Hong Kong’s second-wealthiest family, beat out eight competitors to buy the first piece of prime commercial land offered for sale in Central in two decades.
Henderson Land Development, the property company owned by one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest families, has bought the world’s most expensive commercial land plot in downtown Central, beating out the mainland Chinese developers who had been dominating the city’s real estate purchases in the past year.
Henderson Land will pay a record HK$23.28 billion (US$3 billion) for the government’s Murray Road commercial plot in Central, beating out eight rival bids, according to the Lands Department’s data.
The plot, which can be developed into a commercial building with 465,005 square feet of total gross floor area, translates to HK$50,064 per square foot, way above market expectations and professional valuations of between HK$15.7 billion and HK$22 billion.
“Today’s tender result sets a new benchmark for the local property market,” said Denis Ma, head of research at JLL. “It will be interesting to see how this affects pricing in the property and stock markets.”
The successful bid was Henderson’s first in almost two years, as it and other Hong Kong developers had been priced out by aggressive mainland Chinese companies like HNA, which spent HK$27.2 billion over four months to snatch four parcels of land at the former Kai Tak airport.
A venture of mainland Chinese developers KWG Property Holding and Longfor Properties paid HK$7.23 billion on Tuesday for the latest Kai Tak plot to go on sale, 15 per cent more than analysts’ valuation.
