This is the most significant residential transaction in Hong Kong in Q4

It was a sale of a site on the Peak for HK$1 billion.

According to a Savills report, the stock market continued to drift in October 2022 to a recent low of 14,700 by the end of the month but rebounded strongly during the last two months of 2022 to hit 19,800 by the end of December, vastly improving investment sentiment in general.

Nevertheless, the analyst added that the rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve in December, lifting the Fed Funds Rate to 4.25% to 4.5%, continued to cloud the prospects for the local luxury residential sector. 

“With the two opposing market forces in place, luxury residential prices continued to fall, albeit at a slower pace, in Q4/2022, bringing the full year decline in townhouse and luxury apartment prices on Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories to -12.1%, -11.8%, -11.2% and -11.6% respectively, the largest YoY price drop since the GFC in 2008/09,” the report said.

Here’s more from Savills:

Some eye-catching deals done over the quarter reflected a revival of sentiment towards the end of last year. The most significant transaction was the sale by Swire of the site at 5 Mount Cameron Road on the Peak for HK$1 billion. The site has building plans approved for the development of two detached houses with a total GFA of 10,589 sq ft, representing an AV of 94,438 per sq ft. 

While Swire offloaded non-core assets to take advantage of new business opportunities, this was also a rare purchase by a Mainland related party in the super luxury sector in 2022.

On the other hand, the much-anticipated tender of Cape Road luxury residential site (total GFA of 480,231 sq ft) was cancelled on January 10th, 2023, as the tendered premiums of the four tenderers (CK Asset, SHKP, K. Wah and a JV of Sino and Great Eagle) did not meet the Government’s reserve price for the site. This sent out a mixed signal to the market as developers now seem less than optimistic in bidding for large-scale residential sites in traditional luxury enclaves.