Thursday 17 September 2009

HK$24.5m for one-bedroom flat sets record

A one-bedroom flat in a luxury development in Tsim Sha Tsui has fetched a whopping HK$30,025 per sq ft, setting a record in Hong Kong.

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Guanyu said...

HK$24.5m for one-bedroom flat sets record

Yvonne Liu
15 September 2009

A one-bedroom flat in a luxury development in Tsim Sha Tsui has fetched a whopping HK$30,025 per sq ft, setting a record in Hong Kong.

A Hong Kong businessman who owns a trading firm has paid HK$24.5 million for an 816 sq ft flat on the 56th floor of The Masterpiece for his own use, according to Centaline Property Agency, which concluded the deal. The price is a record for a one-bedroom flat.

The useable area of the apartment is just 590 sq ft, similar to flats in mass residential projects.

Thomas Chan, Centaline sales director, said the buyer was willing to pay the high price because the flat offered views of Victoria Harbour and was centrally located.

In 2007, the average price of one-bedroom flats at The Arch, above Kowloon Station, was HK$17,000 per sq ft.

The 64-storey The Masterpiece in Hanoi Road was developed by New World Development and the Urban Renewal Authority.

It is the second-tallest residential building in Hong Kong after The Cullinan, above Kowloon Station.

The one-bedroom flat is the smallest unit in the project.

“The buyer could get a second-hand luxury flat with at least 1,500 sq ft and three bedrooms in Mid-Levels” for the price, said Koh Keng-shing, managing director at Landscope Surveyors and Landscope Realty.

Even though average prices at housing estates such as Taikoo Shing are still down from their 1997 peak, property agents said luxury residential prices had already exceeded their 1997 levels. The city’s most expensive flat is a 7,088 sq ft unit at Branksome Crest in Mid-Levels, which sold for HK$240 million, or HK$39,786 per sq ft, in December 2007.

Flats previously peaked at about HK$20,000 per sq ft in 1997, Koh said.

The most expensive residential property in the city is a 3,300 sq ft house at 8 Severn Road on The Peak, which sold for HK$285 million, or HK$56,800 per sq ft, in June last year, making it the most expensive residential dwelling in Hong Kong and also Asia.

The new luxury developments in non-traditional luxury residential areas such as Tsim Sha Tsui and Kowloon Station are fetching higher prices than apartments in Mid-Levels and other high-end residential areas.

“Those projects have attracted new demand from mainland buyers and local investors, not the local end-users,” Tsang said. “Some of the projects are overpriced. It may be risky for the buyers.”

Tsang had confidence in the market outlook for luxury residential developments in traditional luxury areas as the supply was expected to remain low in the next few years.