House at Hong Kong’s Mount Nicholson Sells for $73M

A luxury home at the Mount Nicholson project on Hong Kong’s Peak has sold for HK$577.4 million ($73.5 million), showing that prices have barely budged at the exclusive development since the last time units transacted there almost four years ago.

House 12, a 7,042 square foot (654 square metre) villa in Phase I at the joint project of local builders Wheelock & Co and Nan Fung Group, sold for HK$82,000 ($10,446) per square foot to an unnamed buyer on Monday, according to publicly available records.

The sale price represents a slight easing since June 2019 when House 21, a 6,326 square foot villa in Phase II of the project, sold for more than HK$530 million, or HK$85,188 per square foot, and its identically sized twin, House 22, sold for more than HK$580 million, or HK$82,889 per square foot.

House 12 is the first home to find a buyer at the 17-unit Phase I since House 15 sold in June 2019 to then 22-year-old mainland heir Matthew Cheung Siu-woon for HK$916 million, or HK$105,603 per square foot. Only the 8,093 square foot House 20 remains unsold in the phase.

Border Reopening Boost

The four-bedroom House 12 features a west-facing 54 square foot balcony, a 2,715 square foot garden, a 2,088 square foot parking space and a 1,970 square foot yard.

The home was put up for sale at a tender last week with Wheelock Properties, the developer controlled by tycoon Peter Woo, serving as the sales agent.

With the full reopening of Hong Kong’s border with mainland China in early February, local economic activity and market sentiment saw a positive turnaround, according to the latest monthly report by Knight Frank.

A total of 4,282 residential transactions were recorded in February, up 40.3 percent from January, the property consultancy said, citing Land Registry figures. Primary sales bolstered overall market sentiment, surging 80.4 percent to 655 transactions.

The overall home price index also picked up, with a 0.6 percent monthly increase in January, per official figures.

Mainland Buyer Interest

The luxury market saw signs of Chinese mainland buyers returning after the border reopening, according to Knight Frank.

Cases involving buyer’s stamp duty surged 79.4 percent from January, reaching an eight-month high and reflecting increasing purchase demand from non-local buyers, the report said.

In February, a mid-level condo in Tower D of Mount Nicholson’s Phase III sold for HK$390 million, or HK$86,340 per square foot, and a unit at The Corniche, a project of KWG Property and Longan in Ap Lei Chau, went for HK$183.2 million, or HK$50,531 per square foot.