Hong Kong luxury property: Southeast Asian ‘smart money' fishing for ‘trophy assets'
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Capital from Singapore had been flowing to Hong Kong because the Singaporean market had not declined, Thomas See said.
'Some smart money has noticed that prices of real estate in Hong Kong have already fallen by 30 to 40 per cent,' he said, adding that such buyers were eyeing not only luxury residential properties but also en-bloc commercial properties with the highest potential to provide a strong return.
'Luxury properties in Hong Kong still remain at a premium,' See said. 'That's why you've been seeing transactions at tens of thousands of dollars per square foot while the economy is bad. These trophy assets were not for sale when the market was good.'
For example, Jacinto Tong Man-leung, founder of local property investment firm Gale Well Group, sold Vista Horizon at 68-70 Chung Hom Kok Road in the Southern District for HK$220 million, or HK$20,370 per square foot, in March. Savills was the sole agent of the deal.
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But the two houses adjacent to that property, at 64 and 66 Chung Hom Kok Road, sold for about HK$80,000 per square foot in 2021, See said.
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