Hong Kong recorded a billion-dollar home sale this week, another sign that ultra-wealthy customers are continuing to find choice assets even amid the city’s property slump.
A mansion at 1 Gough Hill Road on The Peak on Hong Kong Island, refurbished from an old guest house used in the 1990s by Bank of China, sold for HK$1.088 billion (US$139.87 million) on Tuesday, according to the transactions register. The buyer’s identity could not be ascertained.
That made it the city’s most expensive home sale this year, at a staggering HK$95,018 per square foot.
The mansion, covering 11,451 sq ft (1,063 square metres), features five bedrooms and five bathrooms, with a 10,357 sq ft garden, a rooftop terrace of 3,035 sq ft and vehicle parking space that is larger than Hong Kong’s average home size. There is a swimming pool and a jacuzzi.
The mansion is one of three villas on Gough Hill Road, located near the official residence of Hong Kong’s chief justice, which counts as among the most sought-after addresses for the city’s moneyed class. The original building on the site was used as a guest house by Bank of China, the mainland’s largest foreign-currency bank.
Bank of China sold the project in 2005 for HK$430 million to Cheung Chung-kiu, the Chongqing property magnate and chairman of C C Land Holdings. Cheung, also known as Zhang Songqiao on the mainland, sold the project in 2007 to Peter Law Kin-sang, a local textiles merchant, developer and racehorse owner, for redevelopment, according to local media reports.