Hong Kong | Apartment sets Asia price record amid gov’t curbs

A luxury home in Hong Kong set a price record for apartment sales in Asia, even as the government seeks to tame property prices in the world’s least affordable market.

The penthouse duplex unit in Henderson Land Development Co.’s 39 Conduit Road project was sold for about HKD522 million (USD67 million), or HKD105,000 per square foot, the city’s Sing Tao Daily reported Saturday, citing an unidentified person. Company representatives didn’t immediately reply to an email seeking comment sent outside of business hours.

Hong Kong home prices hit all-time highs this year, shrugging off government restrictions to cool the market as well as concerns that another real-estate crash could deal a heavy blow to the wealth of the city’s 7.4 million people and destabilize its financial system. Centaline Property’s Centa-City Leading Index has climbed 11 percent this year, extending the gain in the last five years to more than 60 percent.

Private home prices in Hong Kong climbed for a 17th straight month in July, according to the latest data released by the Rating and Valuation Department. That is the longest winning streak since 1993, Hong Kong Economic Times reported.

Luxury home prices in Hong Kong regularly break Asian records. In November, two units in phase two of Wheelock Properties Ltd.’s Mount Nicholson project on Hong Kong’s prestigious Victoria Peak were sold at an average per square foot price of HKD104,800, a regional record that was trumped by the latest sale, Sing Tao reported.

It now takes a household 18 years of median income to buy a home in Hong Kong, more than anywhere else in the world, data from Demographia shows. That compares with just over 12 years in Sydney, 8 1/2 in London and under six years for the wider New York metropolitan area.

Hong Kong’s government in May tightened rules on bank lending for property development after expressing worries about banks’ exposure to the real-estate industry as developers bid up land prices. The local monetary authority in the same month introduced fresh curbs on second-home mortgages as well as borrowers whose income is derived mainly from overseas sources.

The recently sold home was initially offered at HKD537.7 million, Sing Tao reported. The 4,971-square-foot unit comes with a private swimming pool and three parking spaces. Bei Hu, Bloomberg