The territory beat London, New York and Singapore for the top spot.
Despite hefty stamp duties, Hong Kong emerged as the world’s top luxury real estate market last year, beating London which dropped to second place after holding the title for the past four years, reported Mansion Global citing a report from Christie’s International Real Estate.
New York clinched the third spot, while Los Angeles and Singapore settled in fourth and fifth place, respectively.
The Christie’s report showed that the global luxury real estate market was muted in 2016, with sales rising by just one percent from eight percent in 2015.
This comes as million-dollar-plus homes took longer to sell – at an average of 220 days from 195 days previously – indicating pricing challenges, increased inventories and the spectre of uncertainty within the luxury markets.
Nonetheless, the top 10 reported residential property deals were all priced above US$100 million, selling for over US$1.3 billion in total.
Hong Kong registered four residential sales above US$100 million and accounted for majority of the 1,500 homes publicly available for sale at US$20 million.
“It boiled down to the concentration of world wealth, and there is a significant concentration of billionaires in China,” said Dan Conn, Chief Executive at Christie’s International Real Estate.
He added that Hong Kong real estate also has a long history of market stability and robust financial performance.
“On the risk side of the equation, Hong Kong is more stable than other prime markets,” said Conn, noting that the US presidential election and the Brexit referendum, for instance, created a lot of uncertainty for real estate buyers.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
