Hong Kong: home to the $2.2B parking garage

The most expensive Manhattan office skyscraper to trade hands in 2016 sold for $1.9 billion. In Hong Kong, a parking garage might soon sell for more than that.

The Hong Kong government put the garage in the city’s Central district on the market, and brokerage Colliers valued it at $2.2 billion. Colliers’ Vincent Cheung told Bloomberg that the property is the first development site in the district to hit the market since 1996. It is expected to sell in the first quarter.

Hong Kong has long been one of the few cities in the world that can match Manhattan’s real estate prices. But its property market has been in a bit of a funk over the past year as the neighboring Chinese economy slows.

“We are bearish on the physical property market, on a weakening economy, deteriorating affordability, declining retail sales and stagnant real household income growth,” Nomura Holdings analysts wrote in August.

In February, home sales fell to a 25-year low. But in October, news site Caixin reported that the Hong Kong market is starting to rebound, driven by a lack of apartment supply. [Bloomberg] — Konrad Putzier