The proceeds will be used to repay a private loan of as much as HK$1.6 billion due in January 2025, one of sources said. The loan, securitised against the Ho family’s properties on 46 Plantation Road, carries an interest rate in the “teens”, the source added.
The residential development includes town house units A to D, with areas ranging from 4,060 sq ft to 4,432 sq ft. All four were sold for a total of HK$1.1 billion on Wednesday, according to government records.
The buyer has signed a preliminary agreement and has paid 5 per cent, or HK$55 million, as initial deposit.
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How Hong Kong’s housing market became among the world’s most unaffordable
How Hong Kong’s housing market became among the world’s most unaffordable
“The buyer is a local with financial strength,” said Raymond Lee, CEO of Hong Kong, Macau and Greater China at Savills, which brokered the deal. “He paid cash and will complete the deal on August 8.”
Lee said that the transaction price was about HK$65,000 per square foot, about 50 per cent less than what the properties would have fetched at the height of the market. This deal will put downward pressure on other luxury homes in the city, he added.
Lee’s comments come as the city’s property market continues to be buffeted by weak demand, economic headwinds and high interest rates.
In 2017, when the property market was still booming, 1-5 Pollock’s Path on The Peak fetched HK$2.8 billion, or HK$110,000 per square foot, according to Victoria Allan, founder and managing director of Habitat Property.
The homes on 46 Plantation Road were completed in 2007, but were put up for sale by tender in February last year after the owner Ho encountered liquidity stress.
Additionally, Ho and other members of his family on January 17 obtained a one-year, HK$85 million loan from X8 Finance, a wholly owned unit of Hong Kong-listed Termbray Industries International, a stock exchange filing showed.
Another residential property the family owns in the city was put up as security for the HK$85 million loan, which carries an interest rate of as much as 29 per cent in the first two months from the drawdown date and 18 per cent after that.
The loan was a refinancing of a HK$44 million facility the borrowers raised in June last year, which had an interest rate of 25 per cent in the first month and 13 per cent thereafter.
