The living room of one of the two luxury homes designed by Gilles & Boissier, in Tai Tam, Hong Kong. Photo: Bloomberg
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US$77 million for 7? The Hong Kong homes that have everything a modern millionaire could want These Luxury Hong Kong Homes Are Fully Furnished. All You Need Is $75 Million
- The Tai Tam properties – 30 minutes from Central – feature sumptuous, fully-furnished designer interiors, landscaped gardens and outdoor infinity pools
The development of seven properties, in Tai Tam, on Hong Kong Island, is aimed at ultra-rich homebuyers, with each property expected to cost about US$77 million. Photo: Bloomberg
The world’s ultra-rich are used to bespoke touches in life, from custom-made suits to tailored financial advice. But what happens when you apply that approach to property – and take it to the extreme?
Loewe Lee, the Hong Kong businessman and former JPMorgan Chase & Co banker, has the answer in a cluster of seven luxury homes, situated on a area of land in Tai Tam, in Southern District, on Hong Kong Island, overlooking the South China Sea.
It’s a prime development, about 30 minutes drive from Hong Kong’s central business district, but the appeal does not stop there.
Five of the seven properties have been painstakingly fitted out with everything a modern multimillionaire could want. Persian carpets cover the floors, and the kitchen cabinets are filled with cut crystal and Christofle cutlery. There’s art on the walls and coffee table books arranged just so.
All a buyer need do is bring a suitcase, and US$77 million (for one dwelling, that is).
“We’re aiming these at well-to-do, well travelled, sophisticated people who might have gone through the process of creating a home many times,” says Lee, 39, the fourth generation of a family that made its fortune in grandfather clocks and quartz watch movements. “They tell us it’s quite a nightmare.”
A luxurious bathroom sink at one of the homes in Tai Tam. Photo: Bloomberg
So time poor, and cash rich: Hong Kong, the world’s least affordable property market and Asia’s pre-eminent financial centre, should have plenty of those.
Still, it’s an unorthodox approach to selling ultra-luxury homes – particularly when buyers who can afford to spend that sort of money can also afford to hire interior designers and style consultants.
Lee, the managing director of Hong Kong-listed National Electronics Holdings, whose property arm teamed up with BPEA Real Estate on the project, says attention to detail is a key point of difference.
Each one of the seven properties in the luxury Tai Tam development has its own infinity pool and landscaped gardens. Photo: Bloomberg
Dressed in a crisp three-piece suit with white pocket square, Lee is keen to highlight design features that may escape the untrained eye, from the way patterns in the hand-picked slabs of Carrara marble dovetail, to the pull-down leather tray in the walk-in wardrobe that makes accessorising while dressing easier. (He jokes that his wife often teases him about his extensive collection of Hermès wallets.)
The development also boasts landscaped gardens, a spacious car park and each house has its own infinity pool.
The living room at one of the furnished mansions for sale in the luxury development in Tai Tam, on Hong Kong Island. Photo: Bloomberg
Two of the homes have been designed by the Paris-based duo Gilles & Boissier, whose projects have included New York’s Baccarat Hotel and the Mandarin Oriental in Marrakech. The properties are cool and contemporary, with a muted colour palette and restrained finishes.
More ornate are the two others by local architect Joseph Fung. Doused liberally with gold and red, their baroque style should appeal to mainland Chinese buyers.
A dining room in one of the luxury properties. Photo: Bloomberg
The fifth, which has yet to be revealed to potential buyers, was designed by Michele Bonan, whose work Lee discovered when staying at the Hotel Portrait Suites in Rome. Lee liked the Italian designer so much he commissioned him to design the interior of his Benetti superyacht.
The seven-home development – two will be sold unfurnished – is the first property project Lee has overseen from start to finish, following in the footsteps of his father, Jimmy Lee, who moved from watchmaking into luxury houses in the early 1990s.
Loewe Lee, managing director of Hong Kong-listed National Electronics Holdings, whose property arm teamed up with BPEA Real Estate to build the luxury Tai Tam development. Photo: Bloomberg
“Loewe has his father’s passion and attention to detail: he flew someone in from Italy to paint a mural, which took a month,” says Richard Yue, the former director of investment at AIG Global Real Estate, which has developed Hong Kong residential projects with the Lee family in the past. “We sold to the very, very elite of Hong Kong.”
A bedroom at one of the luxury homes in Tai Tam. Photo: Bloomberg
The villas should sell for about HK$125,000 (US$16,000) per square foot, or about HK$606 million (US$77 million) each, Alan Man, a broker at Engel & Volkers, says.
“There’s limited supply and the last development in that area was in 1996,” Man says. “[The Lees] have a brand, and people know their quality and reputation.”