A Mansion in Hong Kong’s Exclusive Peak Neighbourhood Poised to Set a Price Record

A new mansion in an exclusive Hong Kong neighbourhood known as The Peak is said to have an offer for HK$1.2 billion (US$153 million) from a mainland Chinese buyer. If the deal goes through, the sale will translate to HK$255,000 per square foot, a record for a residential property in Asia.

The mansion, located on Barker Road, the same street as Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s HK$1.5 billion mansion, has 4,700 square feet of living space across four levels and features sweeping views of Victoria Harbour and city skylines, according to Chinese-language daily Hong Kong Economic Times (HKET).

The mansion was built on the site of a Grade II-listed, Spanish-style villa, known as Villa Blanca. The villa was owned by Hong Kong businessman Haking Wong, most famous for his commercial optical products, for nearly two decades from 1978 to 1998.

CSI Properties acquired the villa in 2011 for HK$200 million, and paid another HK$103.2 million four years later to expand the site, according to the public filings.

The developer began marketing the mansion earlier this year. A buyer from mainland China has offered HK$1.2 billion and the deal is expected to close soon, HKET reported, citing market sources.

CSI Properties did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Mansion Global could not independently confirm details about the potential buyer or sale.

The current unit price record for a residential property in Asia was set in 2021, when an apartment at a development called Mount Nicholson sold for HK$140,800 per square foot, or a total of HK$639.8 million.

Hong Kong, where prime properties on average cost more than HK$34,700 per square foot, was ranked as the world’s second most expensive market following Monaco, according to a recent report by Knight Frank.

Bloomberg was the first global media to report the sale.

This article originally appeared in Mansion Global.

In 2021, actress Emma Stone purchased a historic estate in Austin, Texas, with a plan to move her family there. Four years later, she has instead decided to put the property on the market.

The actress and her husband, comedy writer Dave McCary, are asking $26.5 million for the newly renovated estate, according to Eric Moreland of Moreland Properties/Forbes Global Properties, one of the listing agents. The 1.25-acre property, located in the upscale Tarrytown neighbourhood, will be among the most expensive on the market in Austin.

Stone and McCary have spent more than three years renovating and restoring the Texas property, Moreland said.

A spokesperson for Stone didn’t respond to requests for comment. Moreland said the couple’s New York business interests have expanded since they started the remodel, and while they hope to live in Austin eventually, it doesn’t make sense for now.

The couple, who are co-founders of the production company Fruit Tree, own a roughly $12 million apartment in lower Manhattan, according to property records. Stone is slated to star in the upcoming contemporary Western film “Eddington.”

It’s unclear what Stone and McCary paid for the Austin property, since Texas is a nondisclosure state . The Georgian-style brick house dates to around 1940, making it one of the oldest estates in the area.

The roughly 10,000-square-foot estate includes a main house with four bedrooms and a two-bedroom guesthouse. The property also has a pool, a hot tub, and a garage with a screening room and entertaining space above.

As part of the renovation, the couple removed, cleaned and reused all the exterior brick. They also reconfigured some of the living spaces, opening the kitchen to the living room for a more modern layout. It took more than a year just to install the millwork in the screening room, said Moreland.

The contractors are now putting the finishing touches on the property, he said.

The “La La Land” actress has a track record of buying and selling her homes for significantly more than she paid. In 2022, she sold her blufftop Malibu, Calif., home for $4.425 million after buying it for $3.25 million in 2018, according to property records.

Last year, she sold her home in L.A.’s Comstock Hills neighbourhood for $4.3 million, significantly more than the $2.3 million she paid in 2019.

Austin saw an influx of new residents during COVID, but many of those are now returning to the East and West coasts, particularly workers in the tech sector.

While the market “has come down to earth a little bit” since the pandemic-era boom, Moreland said, he has seen a number of $20 million-plus deals over the past few months.

Moreland has the listing with colleague Diane Humphreys.

A Mansion in Hong Kong’s Exclusive Peak Neighbourhood Poised to Set a Price Record

The actress and her husband, comedy writer Dave McCary, spent more than three years restoring the house, which is one of the priciest properties for sale in the Texas city.