A flagship penthouse mansion owned by Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing’s property development firm CK Asset Holdings has sold for HK$362 million (US$46.2 million), setting a per square foot price record for first-hand transactions in 2026.
Purchased by an unnamed buyer according to public records released by the developer, the 2,911 square foot (270 square metre) unit straddles the 20th floor of the ultra-prime 21 Borrett Road development, which is in the city’s upscale Mid-Levels foothills, between Victoria Peak and Central.
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The transaction is the first among 66 new units launched in Phase 2 of the project earlier in June, with the first phase coming to market five years earlier.
The penthouse is one of six trophy units spanning 1,800 to 3,022 square feet, all of which offer panoramic views over Victoria Harbour.
Each unit has five-bedrooms and three en-suites, with a lofty floor-to-floor height of 3.5 metres. The smaller of two penthouses, the residence also has a rooftop terrace. The larger penthouse is still on the market.
A thawing market whose tail is on the up
Rising prime and super-prime inventory is signalling renewed vim among Hong Kong’s luxury developers as the city’s top-end residential segment emerges from a multi-year slump.
Hong Kong saw 93 deals for luxury homes above HK$100 million (US $12.76 million) in the first four months of 2026, up from 37 the year before, with prices rising around 8% over the same period.
Demand for Hong Kong’s trophy homes from local and mainland China’s growing billionaire classes has been buoyed by wealth cycling out of the Middle East and towards more ‘neutral’ wealth hubs such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
According to William Kwok of CK Asset Holding, Hong Kong’s inventory overhang is concentrated in mass-market projects rather than trophy homes in established luxury districts.
Supply of newly completed ultra-luxury residences remains exceptionally tight, making them prime targets for domestic and international mega-investors.
Despite the 156% year-on-year surge in prime transactions and increased confidence in the luxury segment, a broad-based surge should not be expected, given the uncertain macro interest rate outlook.
Isolated trophy assets – properties valued between HK$100 million and HK$300 million – have recorded selective price gains driven by scarcity and non-replicability.
A signal of a wider decoupling of Hong Kong’s luxury market
The 21 Borrett Road sale confirms the hypothesis that Hong Kong’s trophy assets, both first-hand and secondary, are decoupling from the wider market, whereas mass-market luxury inventory in the same district remains stagnant.
While mass-market luxury inventory in the Mid-Levels remains burdened by stagnation and lingering sentiment, the “super-prime” tier – defined by scarcity, non-replicability, and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) demand – is operating on a separate valuation trajectory.
This divergence indicates an emerging asset class isolation, fuelled by sustained billionaire capital rotation and the limited supply of residences that satisfy the “trophy” criteria.
For investors, this signals that broad-market benchmarks are no longer reliable indicators for top-tier capital performance; future growth in this segment will be driven by localized scarcity rather than macroeconomic cycles.
Liquidity at the top despite stamp duty hikes
In February 2026, the Hong Kong government raised the stamp duty on sales of homes over HK$100 million ($12.8 million) in value from 4.25% to 6.5%.
However, analysts believe this will have only a limited impact on the city’s ultra-luxury residential market. They forecast a possible short-term dip in transaction volume, but more on the broader primary sales market.
“Looking ahead, continued capital rotation, rising participation from mainland Chinese buyers and improving liquidity are expected to continue to support the luxury residential market this year,” noted Eddie Kwok, the Executive Director, Valuation & Advisory Services of CBRE Hong Kong.
The sale of the penthouse at 21 Borrett Road was topped by another landmark, nine-figure transaction earlier this month and Hong Kong’s largest secondary-market residential property deal to date in 2026.
The prestigious mansion at 14 Shek O Road was sold for HK$563 million (approximately $72–92 million) to Singaporean Jennifer Tzelee Teo, a land registry filing shows. Teo’s former husband is Zhang Lei, the billionaire founder and chairman of the Hong Kong-based private equity firm Hillhouse Investment.
Both transactions were, however, dwarfed by the sale of a duplex apartment at Henderson Land Development Company and New World Development Company’s ‘The Legacy’ project in December last year.
Setting an all-time record for an apartment sale, the four-bedroom unit sold for a HK$880 million ($113 million) to an unnamed buyer.
Hong Kong’s billionaires driving city’s super-prime activity
Despite deals remaining below the market’s previous high-water mark, Hong Kong’s rising number of billionaires are behind the recent flurry of ultra-big-ticket residential transactions.
This follows the collective burgeoning of wealth of some of the city’s richest as key industry sectors begin to recover. In a city of real one-upmanship, billionaire demand and lack of development land, Hong Kong’s realtors are looking to the next signifier of extreme wealth in a polarised residential market.
A major redevelopment opportunity at 86–90 Peak Road was brought to market in 2026. Given the scarcity of Peak land, many investors expect any eventual project there to become a landmark ultra-prime development once acquired and redeveloped.
