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SCMP Reporter

The pattern of house buying among the wealthy is no longer confined to traditional upmarket areas

Expensive homes are fanning out across the city, to go by the latest sales and signs in the luxury real estate market.

In the first 10 months of the year, the number of  residential property transactions worth more than $10 million each was double the number registered  in the whole of last year.

Top-end properties are no longer confined to traditional luxury areas such as Mid-Levels. Buyers  in West Kowloon, Pokfulam and  even Cheung Sha Wan are paying eight-digit  sums to buy homes.

Land Registry figures for the period  January 1 to October 27  reveal transactions of 2,520 units worth more than $10 million each.  This represented a surge of 102 per cent  over last year's 1,246 units sold.

According to Midland Realty, the bulk of Hong Kong's luxury homes are still concentrated in Mid-Levels and Island South, which together accounted for 45 per cent of the transactions of houses worth $10 million and more.

Meanwhile, values are rising rapidly for properties around Kowloon station near Jordan, and King's Park,  where sales of 449 units for more than $10 million have been registered. Last year, there were only 75 sales in this bracket.

Midland Realty chief analyst Buggle Lau Ka-fai  said  the traditional luxury residential districts still dominated the market but other districts were beginning to boast top-end properties as well.

He pointed to  residential developments in West Kowloon as an example.  'This district wasn't a traditional luxury residential area but has now become one of the popular luxury home neighbourhoods.'

He cited Hang Lung Properties' The HarbourSide  at Kowloon Station. Units  ranging in size from 1,070 square feet to 2,200 square feet  recently fetched more than $13,000 per square foot, the same asking price as at Dynasty Court in Mid-Levels.

Dynasty Court  flats, ranging from 1,609 square feet to 2,331 square feet, sold for more than $20,000 per square foot in 1997, but prices fell  to less than  $10,000 per square foot last year.

Agents said  wealthy industrialists were making their presence felt across the city with purchases  of luxury homes in Kowloon and the New Territories.

For example, apartments in the two-tower Caldecott Hill, in Piper's Hill near Cheung Sha Wan,  sold for   $6,000 to $8,000 a square foot, putting  the units  in the  $10 million bracket and higher.

Centaline Property Agency executive director Terence Tong Ping-ching said  apartments of more than 1,000 square feet which previously sold for about $8 million were now  worth $10 million or more.  Luxury unit prices had grown 40 per cent over the past year, he said.

A 1,688 square foot flat in PCCW's high-end property development Residence Bel-Air   in Pokfulam  that went for $8 million last September  recently sold for $14 million.

The luxury property market hit a slump  in the second quarter of last year, during the Sars outbreak.  The market recovered in the fourth quarter. There were  75 luxury transactions in September and 241 in October last year.

The upward trend continued until March, when transactions peaked at 515 before dropping  to 341 in April.

Mr Tong said the market consolidated between April and July this year, and showed  signs of exuberance  in August when Henderson Land Development's Grand Promenade in Sai Wan Ho went on  sale, followed by the successful sales of two residential plots in Ho Man Tin and San Po Kong last month.

Despite the rally,  current property prices were  still far behind figures seen  in 1997, agents said. That year,  9,612  homes were sold at more than $10 million each,  according to Midland Realty.

'The prices of luxury residential properties are still down 40 per cent from the peak in 1997,' said Mr Lau, who  described 1997 as 'a very special period'.

He said he doubted Hong Kong would achieve that same level of  exceptional market performance over the next few years.

Analysts said that transaction figures  would continue to rise,  but possibly at a slower than expected rate.

Mr Tong forecast the property market would grow a further 8 per cent before year end, and up to 50 per cent  over the next  three years.



Luxury lifestyle is spreading