Wharf (Holdings) pays US$1.5 billion for Peak plot, sets record for most expensive residential site sold by government tender
- Wharf’s winning bid was higher than a market valuation of between HK$7.78 billion and HK$11.15 billion
- Winning bid reflects developer’s confidence in market outlook for super luxury housing, Knight Frank says
A subsidiary of Wharf (Holdings) has agreed to pay a higher-than-expected HK$12 billion (US$1.5 billion) to become the owner of the first residential land parcel to be sold since 2010 in Hong Kong’s most exclusive housing enclave.
At HK$46,272 per square foot, the sale has also set a record for Hong Kong’s most expensive residential site sold by government tender in terms of square footage. Back in 2006, Sun Hung Kai Properties splashed out HK$1.8 billion, or HK$42,196 per square foot, for the site of luxury project Twelve Peaks at 12 Mount Kellett Road.
The plot at 2,4,6 and 8 Mansfield Road on The Peak, the site of the former Quarters Premises, where some of Hong Kong’s civil servants were housed, measures 134,884 sq ft and can yield up to 259,337 sq ft of gross floor area.
The successful tender, which follows the sale of the smallest parcel at the beginning of December on the former runway of the old Kai Tak Airport site, shows that the division of large land parcels into bite-size plots was effective in encouraging bids, as Hong Kong’s property market grapples the city’s worst recession in decades.
The winning bid was higher than a market valuation of between HK$7.78 billion and HK$11.15 billion. Wharf Development is a wholly-owned unit of The Wharf (Holdings), a developer controlled by the family of Hong Kong billionaire Peter Woo Kwong-ching. .
