Hong Kong Tycoon Drops Price for Beachfront Complex by 25% as Fire Sale Heats Up

Hong Kong’s Gale Well Group has slashed the price for a beach villa complex in the city’s Southern District by 25 percent over the past four months, as the financially-troubled property investment firm seeks to accelerate asset disposals.

The owner of Jade Beach Villa at 3-7 Horizon Drive in Chung Hom Kok area is inviting formal offers for the property at a guide price of HK$1.5 billion ($191 million), property agency JLL said on Monday, with public records showing tycoon Jacinto Tong’s Gale Well as owner of the property.

The 1977-vintage complex comprising 12 apartments and 18 houses had been put on the market for HK$2 billion in February, according to an earlier report by Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao. Gale Well Group’s latest asking price reflects an approximately one-quarter price cut.

“Jade Beach Villa is currently the only and largest single-lot luxury residential site available for sale in the private market. With a site area exceeding 100,000 square feet ( 9290 square metres), developers have greater flexibility to design the layout and develop an ultra-luxury residential project,” said JLL Hong Kong chairman Joseph Tsang.

Redevelopment Potential

Situated in an upscale neighbourhood of detached homes close to the Dairy Farm Chung Hom Kok Shopping Mall, the Gale Well’s luxury complex occupies a site of approximately 102,000 square feet.

The total saleable area of the homes in the project amounts to 55,914 square feet, with Gale Well Group’s HK$1.5 billion asking price translating to about HK$26,827 per square foot. The submission of formal offers will close on 29 July.

Co-founded by Jacinto Tong, his elder sister Rita Tong Liu and younger brother Luis Tong in 1976, Gale Well Group invested in luxury apartments in its early years and later switched to other asset classes including parking spaces, shops and offices.

Gale Well Group made a number of purchases in the 3-7 Horizon Drive complex since 1988 before consolidating its ownership in 2016, spending HK$200 million to acquire the properties over the 30 year span, according to an account by local news site HK01.

The site is zoned as “Residential R (C)”, with land lease and town planning regulations permitting a development plot ratio of 0.56 and maximum gross floor area of 57,375 square feet. The property can be redeveloped into a three-storey detached house with a one-storey open carport, said JLL.

“With luxury residential rents continuing to rise, buyers have the option to retain the property for rental purposes after redevelopment, potentially yielding attractive returns,” said Danny Chan, executive director of capital markets at JLL.

Currently, eight of 12 apartments and 14 of 18 houses are leased out, according to JLL.

Serial Seller

Gale Well Group has been aggressively offloading assets recently to reduce its net gearing, making many disposals at significant discounts.

Last month, Gale Well Group sold a street-level shop at King Kwong Street in Happy Valley for HK$28.8 million, with that price representing a nearly 40 percent markdown from what the company paid to acquire the property in 2008. The company also sold a gound floor shop at 1-3 Jubilee Street in Central for HK$38.8 million, booking a 47 percent loss from its 2011 acquisition cost.

In April, Gale Well Group sold the 39th floor of the Far East Finance Centre for HK$194.4 million, with that price translating to HK$18,000 per square foot to mark the lowest price per unit area in the Admiralty office tower since the global financial crisis of 2008.

Jacinto Tong has also disposed of his personal assets recently. In early April, local media reported that he sold his 4,600-square-foot house in Repulse Bay for HK$138 million, which represented a 31 percent discount from his initial asking price.

Gale Well Group chair Rita Tong Liu, also known as the city’s Car-Park Queen, saw her wealth shrink by 27 percent over the past year. With a net worth of $2.4 billion as of February, she took 35th place on Forbes’ 2025 list of Hong Kong’s 50 Richest people, dropping 10 spots from last year.