Hong Kong condo sale shatters record in slumping market

$59M deal for unit is priciest per square foot ever paid across continent

21 Borrett Road 
21 Borrett Road

Hong Kong is in a housing slump but one condo sale just shattered a record.

A five-bedroom unit in a luxury condo tower sold for $59 million, the highest price per foot paid in Asia, Bloomberg reported.

CK Asset Holdings Ltd. sold the 3,378-square-foot unit at 21 Borrett Road in the wealthy Mid-Levels neighborhood. The buyer was not named.

That $17,542 per square foot broke the record set in 2017, according to the report. The 23rd-story unit includes a private pool and three parking spaces.

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Overall, Hong Kong luxury home prices fell 8 percent in 2020, compared to the 1 percent decline across the broader market, the report noted.

The pandemic has also worsened Hong Kong’s already falling real estate market. Office vacancies were at a 16-year high in the fall, and retail rents on the high-end boulevards have tumbled.

There are other signs that the residential market could be improving, however.
Earlier this month, a consortium of investors paid the Hong Kong government the equivalent of $935 million for a 1.25-acre residentially zoned parcel in the Peak neighborhood. It was the highest price shelled out for a government-owned residential property.

The wider downward trend in Hong Kong has been attributed in part to the fierce anti-government protests and the Chinese government’s increasing involvement in the quasi-independent territory’s governance. [Bloomberg] — Dennis Lynch