A 23-storey office tower in Macau was sold for HK$701 million on Monday in the biggest office transaction on the island since the global financial crisis began in late 2008.
The signing of the deal signalled that sentiment in the Macau property market was recovering from the lows reached during the crisis, property agents said.
Located at Avenida Xian Xing Hai, opposite the Macao Cultural Centre, the tower known as Zhu Kuan Mansion was sold to a local investment firm, Cheng Long.
Macau-based Capitalsino Properties bought the property in 2007 at a price believed to have been above HK$700 million.
The property, built in 1997, has a total floor area of 485,716 sq ft and 205 parking spaces. The transaction price of HK$701 million equates to a price of HK$1,443 per square foot, reflecting an initial yield of 3.5 per cent.
'It was intended to dispose of the property in 2008, but the plan was called off when the global financial crisis happened,' said Franco Liu Pui-lam, director and head of the Macau office of property consultancy Savills, which brokered the deal.
'There are just a handful of qualified grade-A buildings in Macau, so that en bloc transaction activity is limited,' Liu said.
