Hong Kong Sells Record-Breaking Land to Wharf, Tycoons

(Bloomberg) -- Wharf Holdings Ltd. teamed up with Hong Kong property tycoons to win a premium land site in the luxurious Peak area for a record-breaking price.

The consortium includes a Wharf subsidiary, an entity owned by Sino Land Co.’s Chairman Robert Ng, C C Land Holdings Ltd.’s Cheung Chung Kiu, Chinese Estates Holdings Ltd.’s Chan Hoi Wan and her brother-in-law Thomas Lau. It won the residential land for HK$7.25 billion ($935 million), a government statement showed late Wednesday.

The 54,541 square-foot (5,067 square-meter) site can produce a maximum of about 144,970 square feet of floor area. The bidding price translates into HK$50,011 per square foot for the prime land plot, the highest on record for a residential site sold in government tenders.

The plot was previously valued by Midland IC&I Ltd. at HK$6.8 billion.

The higher-than-expected price reflects the developers’ confidence that the city’s luxury home market will rebound after the pandemic. Prices of high-end residential properties in Hong Kong fell last year as cross-border travel restrictions made mainland buyers scant.

Luxury home prices dropped 8% in 2020, more than the 1% decline in the mass market, data from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. show.

Wharf also bought the adjacent residential site for HK$12 billion in December.

Bidders in the tender that missed out included CK Asset Holdings Ltd., Henderson Land Development Co., Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. and K. Wah International Holdings Ltd.

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