Mansions on Hong Kong’s Peak Sold to Touchscreen Tycoon for $141M to Repay Gaw Loan

A set of four mansions in Hong Kong’s prestigious Peak area have sold for HK$1.1 billion ($141 million), marking a 50 percent decline from the height of the market in 2021, as even the city’s elite show signs of financial stress amid Hong Kong’s protracted housing slump.

Ho Shung-pun, whose family founded local developer Kowloon Investment Co Ltd, sold units A, B, C and D at 46 Plantation Road to smartphone touchscreen tycoon Yeung Kin-man, with the sale proceeds set to be used for repaying a HK$1.6 billion loan provided by Hong Kong-based private equity firm Gaw Capital Partners, market sources told Mingtiandi. Gaw Capital declined to comment on the loan.

“The sale price of this single lot has been adjusted down by around 50 percent compared to the market peak,” said Raymond Lee, chief executive of Greater China for Savills, which brokered the sale. “The price is considered very attractive. Furthermore, the buyer completed the transaction in cash, with a short completion period, which motivated the seller to part with the property.”

The sale marks the largest residential transaction since the Hong Kong government scrapped stamp duties on home sales in February.

Billionaire Next Door

Ho, a former professor in the mathematics department at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, had reportedly taken out the short-term loan from Gaw Capital in June 2023.

Due in January 2025, the loan carries an interest rate in the “teens” and is collateralised against the properties on 46 Plantation Road, according to an account in the South China Morning Post which cited unnamed sources. Under the terms of the loan, Ho’s failure to make payments triggered the sale, market sources told Mingtiandi.

The quartet of three-storey detached homes have saleable areas ranging from 4,060 square feet to 4,432 square feet (377 square metres to 412 square metres), with a combined saleable area of 16,986 square feet on a 21,470 square foot lot. Each of the units boasts a swimming pool, an elevator, a rooftop, gardens, parking spaces, and panoramic views of Victoria Harbour.

Yeung, who is paying HK$64,759 per square foot for the properties, signed a preliminary purchase agreement on Tuesday and paid a deposit amounting to 5 percent of the transaction price, according to the project’s transaction register. Another deposit of 5 percent will be paid by 22 July, with the balance set to be paid by 8 August.

Yeung also owns 1-3 Pollock’s Path, a 25,554 square foot mansion next door to 46 Plantation Road that he and his wife Lam Wai-ying bought in 2017 for HK$2.8 billion. Yeung and Lam, whose company Biel Crystal Manufactory is a major supplier of glass panels for smart device makers including Apple, Samsung and Huawei, ranked 18th on Forbes’ list of richest Hongkongers this year with a net worth of $4.5 billion.

Biel Crystal has also invested in commercial property projects in the city, with plans to build a 39-storey commercial tower in Kowloon East’s Kwun Tong area after having consolidated ownership of the site last year to complete a nine-year process.

Liquidity Crunch

Completed in 2007, the mansions were put up for sale by tender in February last year after the Ho family reportedly began facing liquidity challenges. In January, Ho and a relative took out a HK$85 million, one-year loan from X8 Finance, a unit of HKEX-listed property developer and money lender Termbray Industries International.

That loan carried an interest rate of 29 percent per annum for the first and second months and 18 percent per annum thereafter, and was collateralised against two floors of a residential property and garage space owned by Ho.

Ho and his relative also took out a HK$44 million, one-year loan from X8 Finance in June 2023, with that debt carrying an interest rate of 25 percent in the first month and 13 percent thereafter. That loan was also collateralised against a residential property owned by Ho.

The clan’s property holdings in the city include 30 Peak Road in Bowen Hill, 99-103 Peak Road in the Peak, as well as 98 Blue Pool Road in Happy Valley, according to local media accounts.

Ho, who is in his 80s, continues to serve as a director of Kowloon Investment, which developed the Portofino luxury apartment project in Hong Kong’s Clear Water Bay area, and owns the 13-storey Kowloon Investment Building commercial block in Mong Kok.

Down From The Peak

The Plantation Road sale comes after prices of super luxury residences in Hong Kong plummeted by 25 percent to 30 percent in the 18 months ending 31 December 2023, according to Savills.

The discounted prices have begun to attract buyers, with the Asian financial centre logging $988 million worth of transactions in the first quarter for residential properties worth at least $10 million, representing a 236 percent uptick from the previous quarter, according to Knight Frank.

“With more super luxury owners likely to face some sort of financial distress, or with some particular reasons to offload their luxury holdings, high coveted super luxury houses, which are previously tightly held, may become accessible for purchase in 2024,” Savills said in a March report. “There would be genuine cash-rich buyers on the sideline looking into this niche market, but would only strike at the right price.”

In May, receivers of Unit B at 10 Black’s Link, a 5,171 square foot mansion in the Peak linked to fallen China Evergrande boss Xu Jiayin, sold the property to an undisclosed buyer for HK$448 million, representing a 49 percent discount from its HK$880 million valuation last year.

Earlier this year, the wife of Xu Hang, the billionaire co-founder of Shenzhen-listed medical device maker Mindray Medical, purchased 25-26 A&B Lugard Road in the Peak for HK$838 million, representing a 30 percent discount to the height of the market.