A luxury home in Hong Kong set a price record for apartment sales in Asia, even as the government seeks to tame property prices in the world’s least affordable market.
The penthouse duplex unit in Henderson Land Development Co’s (恒基兆業地產) 39 Conduit Road project sold for about HK$522 million (US$66.8 million), or HK$1.13 million per square meter, the city’s Sing Tao Daily reported yesterday, citing an unidentified person.
Hong Kong home prices hit all-time highs this year, shrugging off government restrictions to cool the market as well as concerns that another real-estate crash could deal a heavy blow to the wealth of the territory’s 7.4 million people and destabilize its financial system.
Private home prices in Hong Kong climbed for a 17th straight month in July, according to the latest data released by the Rating and Valuation Department. That is the longest winning streak since 1993, the Hong Kong Economic Times reported.
Luxury home prices in Hong Kong regularly break records.
In November last year, two units in phase two of Wheelock Properties Ltd’s (會德豐地產) Mount Nicholson project on Hong Kong’s prestigious Victoria Peak were sold at an average per square foot price of HK$104,800, a regional record that was trumped by the latest sale, Sing Tao reported.
It would take a household 18 years of median income to buy a home in Hong Kong, more than anywhere else in the world, Demographia data show.
That compares with just more than 12 years in Sydney, eight-and-a-half in London and less than six years for the wider New York metropolitan area.
Hong Kong’s government in May tightened rules on bank lending for property development after expressing worries about banks’ exposure to the real-estate industry as developers bid up land prices.
The local monetary authority in the same month introduced fresh curbs on second-home mortgages, as well as borrowers whose income is derived mainly from overseas sources.
The recently sold home was initially offered at HK$537.7 million, Sing Tao reported. The 462m2 unit comes with a private swimming pool and three parking spaces.
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