Flat worth US$59.3 million at CK Asset’s Mid-Levels luxury project sets Asia price record

The 3,378 sq ft flat’s price at HK$136,000 per square foot breaks record held by Mount Nicholson flats
Investors are paying record prices for luxury properties because supply for such properties is low, but Hong Kong has a lot of capital, says Centaline’s Raymond Li

Hong Kong property

Lam Ka-sing

Published: 6:45pm, 16 Feb 2021

Why you can trust SCMP

A flat in CK Asset Holdings’ 21 Borrett Road luxury residential project in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels has set the record for price per square footage in Asia.

The five-bedroom Flat 1 on the 23rd floor of the project’s phase one sold for HK$459.4 million (US$59.3 million) through tender on Monday, according to the development’s register of transactions. The 3,378 sq ft flat’s price at HK$136,000 per square foot broke the record held by flats 12C and 12D at Mount Nicholson, one of Asia’s priciest addresses. The flats were sold for HK$1.17 billion, or about HK$132,100 per square foot, in November 2017.

“Since the beginning of this year, the property market has seen brisk business, and the second-hand luxury housing market continues to heat up,” said Jayson Au, senior principal sales director at Ricacorp Properties.

Monday’s sale points once again to rising optimism about Hong Kong’s luxury housing market as the coronavirus pandemic is brought under control. It follows the tender for a residential site on Mansfield Road on The Peak, which last week fetched HK$50,010 per square foot, a record for residential land sold by the government.

The sale also comes amid the city’s worst recession on record and rising unemployment. But investors were paying record prices for luxury properties because “the supply for such properties is low, but Hong Kong has a lot of capital”, said Raymond Li, principal sales director at Centaline Property Agency. He added that the trend of high prices was likely to continue.

Luxury housing transaction volumes fell heavily in the last three months of 2020, as border closures prevented both buyers and capital from moving freely, and prices declined across the board by up to 2.1 per cent in the quarter, according to Savills.

But the prospect of vaccines, coupled with a low interest rate environment and the reopening of borders, will benefit the segment, said Ricacorp’s Au.

Other factors that are expected to affect the luxury housing market favourably are the recent stock market boom, as well as homebuyers not being able to travel, according to Jacky Lung, district sales director at Centaline.

And with a vacancy tax on new homes being shelved by the government, the luxury market could be the first to rebound as the economy recovers, said James Cheung, executive director at Centaline Surveyors.

The five-bedroom flat at 21 Borrett Road is the 181-unit project’s biggest apartment. It comes with three parking spaces, a 2,131 sq ft rooftop as well as a swimming pool.