Frenzy for Hong Kong Luxury Property Continues

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The mania for Hong Kong luxury property reached another milestone this week, when a plot of land in the exclusive Peak district sold for $233 million, or about $8,700 a square foot.

The price is a record high for luxury land in Hong Kong, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The buyer was Lee Shau-kee, who controls the Henderson Land Development Co. Shau-kee expects to build three or four houses on the site, which is known as Falconridge, his son told reporters.

Hong Kong's government has been trying to slow down the meteoric rise in prices in luxury property, adding restrictions on mortgages, imposing new taxes and increasing supply by making more property available. But prime properties in neighborhoods like Peak continue to attract outrageous prices.

"The Peak is all about trophy-hunting," Nicholas Brooke, chairman of real-estate consultancy Professional Property Services Ltd., told the Journal. "It's not the real world, the world of the average Hong Kong citizen."

The Henderson Land Development will sound familiar to anyone who follows the twists of the Hong Kong luxury market, Last October Henderson sold a condo for 6,158-square-foot apartment in Hong Kong for $56.6 million, believed to be the largest amount ever paid for a condo.

See Related story on REAL ESTATE CHANNEL:  Trophy Home Site in Hong Kong Sells for $233 Million  May 19, 2010

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