The Arch luxury residential development next to the West Kowloon railway station. Photo: Felix Wong/SCMP
SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - The recent trend of luxury home prices setting one record after another is tempting some owners to cash in while the going is good.
A basket of five properties at The Arch near Kowloon MTR station, with an indicative price of HK$1 billion (US$128.34 million or $173.14 million), is the latest to go on the market.
A triplex unit, dubbed the "Emperor's Home" because of its ostentatious decor, and four flats at the 16-year-old residential tower, are on offer for sale by tender, according to Midland Realty, the sole agent.
The triplex, spread over the 80th to 82nd floors, has an area of 4,263 sq ft and comes with a 1,278 sq ft sky garden, private pool and a 90 sq ft terrace.
The other four units are flats B and C on the 80th floor and flats C and D on the 79th floor, with sizes ranging from 972 sq ft to 1,023 sq ft, according to the tender, which closes on January 28.
The five properties have a combined area of 8,253 sq ft and come with six car parking spaces.
The owners, Hui Chi-ming, the former chairman of Sino Union Petroleum & Chemical International, and related parties, bought the five properties at The Arch, built by Sun Hung Kai Properties, for a total HK$270 million between 2007 and 2011.
"The indicative price takes into reference recent transactions of super deluxe homes and the rare supply of mega-sized flats," said Ada Yeung, a sales director of Midland Realty.
The triplex, spread across the 80th to 82nd floors at The Arch, is one of the five properties on offer for sale by tender. The indicative price for the five properties is HK$1 billion. Photo: Handout
The asking price translates to HK$121,168 per square foot.
In 2019, three connected flats with a total of 4,566 sq ft at Sky Tower in the same development sold for HK$500 million, or HK$110,000 per sq ft, Yeung said.
She added that as the five properties are holdings of offshore companies, the buyer can acquire them via share transfer and save on stamp duty.
"As the buyer is seen as buying shares, not property, stamp duty does not have to be paid," Yeung said.
Buyers of second homes are required to pay a double stamp duty of 15 per cent of the property price.
The ostentatiously decorated triplex is dubbed the 'Emperor's Home'. Photo: Handout
Hong Kong's super-deluxe homes sold for record prices twice last year.
In November, Lau Chauin, the daughter of Lau Chi-keung, the chairman of Heungkong Group, which has interests ranging from logistics and finance to health care and property development on the mainland, bought flats 16C and 16D at Mount Nicholson on The Peak for a combined HK$1.2 billion.
Flat 16D, measuring 4,544 sq ft and three car parking spaces in the project developed by Wharf Holdings and Nan Fung Development, was sold for HK$639.8 million, or HK$140,800 per square foot, making it Asia's most expensive flat on a per square foot basis.
It broke the record held by a flat in CK Asset Holdings' 21 Borrett Road luxury residential project in Mid-Levels. That flat, which also came with three parking spaces, sold for HK$459.4 million, or HK$136,000 per square foot, last February.
Last week, a 3,641 sq ft flat at 8 Deep Water Bay Road development sold for HK$393 million, or HK$106,787 per sq ft, setting a record for the project, an agent said.
"We have clients looking for mega-size flats for entertaining guests, and also to provide accommodation for their staff, such as bodyguards," said Midland's Yeung.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.