While Hong Kong has long been known for tiny square footage and some of the world’s most expensive real estate, a new rental property has managed to top even the most outrageous records.
Development company Wharf Holdings Ltd. is leasing out a property in its ultra-exclusive The Peak neighborhood for HK$1.35 million ($174,000 USD) a month — a sum that adds up to more than $2 million USD for the annual agreement. Located at 11 Plantation Road, the 10,804-square-foot house overlooking Victoria Harbour is the most expensive rental ever recorded in Hong Kong.
11 Plantation Road is home to seven homes that were built by Wharf Holdings Ltd. and have been advertised to some of Asia’s most wealthy residents — other residents of The Peka include Macau casino heiress Pansy Ho and Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma.
While the neighborhood is in high demand among the uber-wealthy, it has — like all of Hong Kong — a dearth of available housing supply which pushes some developers and homeowners into holding onto the property and renting it instead. Out of the seven homes on 11 Plantation Road, three have already been set aside for lease while the developer plans to sell the remaining four.
Wheelock Properties (Hong Kong) Ltd.
“It takes a long time to sell a home,” Thomas Lam, an executive director at Knight Frank LLP, told Bloomberg. “They would have stock waiting to be sold anyway. Leasing some of the houses with substantial rents can stimulate the market while offering rental income.”
Like most of the world, Hong Kong saw its luxury sales plummet in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in the spring of 2020. According to London-based real estate firm Savills, sales of luxury homes dropped 37 percent to 127 units between December 2019 and October 2020 while prices fell by 0.9 percent, to 2.1 percent.
But as with other cities with ultra-valuable real estate, the market has rebounded fast — at $57 million, the sale of a five-bedroom penthouse set another record as the most expensive in the city in February while the same development company is already building out a similar plot of luxury homes at 8 Mansfield Road