rss feedHong Kong apartment fetches a record $56.6 million, bought by resident of China
Before I start, I want to thank E.Hoba for posting such a gorgeous, panoramic shot of Hong Kong on flickr. It’s the image above and I thought I’d leave it as clean as possible, as compared to including a boxed caption and credit.
So, you can read the various news reports from The New York Times and The Associated Press about a well-to-do resident of China plunking down $56.6 million for a luxury skyscraper apartment at 39 Conduit Road in Hong Kong.
Reuters has posted a photograph of the building. The AP has a slideshow.
The price marks a real estate record for Hong Kong.
All I can say is this: Wow.
Change happens. For many, change in China is happening fast.
I remember the days in the 1990s - and especially around the Hong Kong handover in 1997 – when people from China didn’t get as much respect from some in the former British colony.
Back in the day, the Royal Hong Kong Police actually kept an eye out for undocumented migrants from China and Vietnam, especially in the touristy area of Tsim Sha Tsui area.
I know because an officer spotted me – I was a bit scruffier at the time – and asked me for identification.
My passport was at a travel agency awaiting a visa to China.
I don’t think he knew what to think when he heard my California-influenced English. But he said he was looking for undocumented migrants.
Now, this.
The sales price is prompting talk of a real estate bubble in the special administrative region, according to media reports.
The Wall Street Journal recently ran a piece about how Hong Kong’s luxury condominiums are attracting buyers from China. AFP moved a story about the trend, as well.
AFP reporter Eleanor Wason noted that buyers were often associated with big Chinese cities, such as Shanghai.
These days, buyers from China are coming from other cities, including Hangzhou.
She quoted a real estate agent in Hong Kong:
Status is built into it. They can tell people: ‘I bought an apartment in Hong Kong.’
It reminds me that the value of an item is often based on what a person is willing to pay for it at that moment.
I also realize that many people in the United States don’t like to flaunt what they have.
I know Larry Hillblom, who started DHL Worldwide Express, is not be the best example of this.
But when I lived on Guam, people said that he often hung out in a shirt, shorts and sandals.
Hong Kong has been home to high-end lifestyles for a while.
During the handover in 1997, I remember seeing a television news report with Dan Rather, who went zipping around Hong Kong’s hilly streets with a successful businessman.
They were in Porsches and the businessman boasted of how the city would still do well in the years to come.
And Hong Kong, a free port in the truest sense of economics, is home to shipping, broadcast and real estate empires.
I do have one quick thought about the price:
This might be an unfair comparison.
But the Seattle skyscraper once known as the WaMu Center will trade hands for $115 million. It has roughly 900,000 square feet.
So in theory, for that $56.6 million, this resident of China could have bought roughly half of the Seattle tower.
The gain in square feet: About 450,000 square feet, give or take a few thousand.
Then again, I’m sure that person in China never even considered the price or this comparison.
When you have that much money, such concerns can become academic.
I also wonder if more investors from Asia and especially China will decide to invest their money in U.S. real estate.
The trend has occurred before in the 1980s with real estate investments from Japan.
When people from one country begin buying pricey real estate in another country – no matter where you’re from – it is possible for a sticky wicket to arise.
Resentment is possible. So, is questioning your country’s place in the world.
Yet, if an economy needs an infusion of cash to make the wheels on the bus go round and round, will people really make a fuss?
