Actress Ada Choi, other cash-rich buyers are splurging on Hong Kong’s property. Here’s why
- Activity by veteran investors, like the former CEO of the Hong Kong stock exchange, signals a more optimistic outlook, experts say
Hong Kong’s property market has attracted veteran investors like the former CEO of the Hong Kong stock exchange in the months since decade-old cooling measures were scrapped, signalling a more optimistic outlook for the luxury market, experts said.
Francis Yuen Tin-fan, former deputy chairman of PCCW and CEO of the Hong Kong stock exchange from 1988 to 1991, along with his wife Rose Lee Wai-mun, spent HK$15.2 million (US$1.9 million) in May to buy a 734 sq ft, two-bedroom flat in Pok Fu Lam’s Bel-Air residences, according to a Midland Realty agent.
Yuen bought the flat as a rental property after negotiating the HK$20 million asking price down by more than 20 per cent.
Yuen and Lee have long been active luxury property investors. Most notably, they sold a 9,890 sq ft luxury house at 22 Barker Road on The Peak for HK$1.5 billion in 2015 – then the world’s second most expensive sale in terms of price per square foot at HK$150,000. Yuen paid HK$163.5 million for the then 70-year-old house in 2000.
In the same year, Lee bought a flat at Opus Hong Kong in Mid-Levels for HK$375.4 million. The 5,199 sq ft home on the sixth floor was valued at HK$72,201 per square foot.