You won’t believe how much dirt sells for in the world’s priciest market

If you thought land deals in New York were insane, have a seat. A plot of government land in Hong Kong is expected to fetch an eye-popping $13,000 a square foot, a record for the city and possibly the world.

The 404,300-square-foot piece of land in The Peak, Hong Kong’s ritziest neighborhood, is expected to sell for $5.1 billion. At that price it would be the most valuable piece of land ever sold in the city, according to the South China Morning Post.

The enormous price ticket is partly due to scarce available land in the Southern District and The Peak, which makes up only 1 percent of available residential land in the city, according to Thomas Lam, a senior director at Knight Frank.

“It will become the new land king,” Lam told the outlet. “Available land in this upscale district is very rare and developers would be very aggressive in bidding for the site.”

It is the first government-owned piece of land in the area sold in eight years, since another property was sold for $1.3 billion, or $4,000 a square foot.

Existing homes in The Peak also command exorbitant prices. A four-bedroom home in The Peak was listed this week for $440 million, and that home is almost certainly a tear-down.

A development site that once contained a historic villa at 75 Peak Road sold in 2015 for $657.8 million, and Alibaba CEO Jack Ma also bought a house on Peak Road a few years ago for $193 million. [SCMP] — David Jeans