One of the World’s Most Expensive Luxury Property Markets Is Becoming a Lot Cheaper

China’s economic slowdown is wreaking havoc on Hong Kong’s luxury property market .

The most expensive homes in the city are changing hands at steep discounts to what they were worth just a few years ago. Chinese property tycoons, struggling to contain the fallout of their collapsing business empires, have become forced sellers. Bank lenders are seizing properties after luxury homeowners miss loan payments.

The average selling price of superluxury homes, defined as those worth more than the equivalent of $38 million, has fallen by more than a quarter since the middle of 2022, said Cherrie Lai, senior director and head of residential sales in Hong Kong at Savills . It will fall further this year as sellers accept reduced prices to cash out quickly, she said.

The slide in prices shows the fallout of China’s sputtering economy, which is suffering from deflation , slowing exports and moribund consumer confidence. A continuing real-estate slowdown in China is proving particularly painful, since the country’s big-spending property magnates were behind some of Hong Kong’s biggest luxury-property deals in recent years.

Hong Kong’s property market has also been squeezed by rising interest rates in the U.S. The Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the U.S. dollar, and the city’s de facto central bank matches Federal Reserve interest-rate increases. But the U.S. market has held up much better: Nine-figure home sales in places such as California and Florida have skyrocketed , and luxury-home prices in the top 5% of the U.S. market have soared over the past decade.

The luxury homes up for grabs in Hong Kong include three mansions linked to collapsed real-estate company China Evergrande , said Victoria Allan, founder of Habitat Property. Local media reported they were ultimately owned by Hui Ka Yan , the company’s founder.

The three properties, which are adjacent mansions on a hillside road known as Black’s Link, have been seized by creditors. House 10B was sold for about $115 million in 2019 but it is now valued by banks at roughly $55 million, said Allan. It has yet to find a buyer. The other two properties could be put on the market next month, she said.

Chen Hongtian, the mainland-Chinese founder of property-investment firm Cheung Kei Group, bought a luxury high-rise apartment occupying an entire floor in a building designed by architect Frank Gehry in 2015, paying about $49.5 million. It was later seized by a creditor, according to official records. In September, shipping magnate Kwai Sze Hoi bought the property for $53.4 million, records show, below what property agents said was a market valuation of about $87 million at the time.

Homes seized by creditors usually sell at a discount to market prices, property agents say.

A waterfront house at Residence Bel-Air, a luxury residential development, belonged to Mai Fan , the chief executive of Kaisa Group —another developer that defaulted as China’s property crisis widened in recent years. He acquired the house through a company called Million Link Development in 2017, corporate and land records show, at a time when property prices were still climbing. Receivers were appointed to handle the property in 2021 and sold the house the following year for about $46 million, according to the land registry.

In one of Hong Kong’s top sales in recent years, a local businessman sold his house for the equivalent of about $107 million last month, well below the initial asking price of $166 million, according to Savills. It is located on Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak, a mountaintop neighborhood that is home to business moguls and celebrities living in some of the city’s most expensive properties.

“China still has very wealthy people, but they’re a different group now,” said Victor Cheng, a realtor in Hong Kong. “They’re not the highflying property moguls but those who may not have made as much when China grew rapidly but whose businesses grew steadily.”

He said the new breed of luxury-home buyer in Hong Kong is cash-rich and less likely to load up on debt.

Some mainland Chinese homeowners have been forced or pressured to sell—often at around 20% below market prices—because they need cash to pay off debt, said Cheng. Some top executives from the mainland previously bought trophy homes and only used them occasionally without renting them out, he said.

Data analysed by online real-estate marketplace Spacious.hk suggest a tougher time ahead for luxury homes. The number of sale inquiries on the platform for homes priced at the equivalent of $10 million or above fell 45% in the past 12 months, said Spacious.hk Chief Operating Officer James Fisher. Inquiries for homes under $1.3 million and for those priced between that and $3.2 million fell by 8% and 25%, respectively.

The price index for private homes slumped to a seven-year low by the end of 2023, according to Hong Kong’s Rating and Valuation Department.

One of Burleigh Heads’ most architecturally significant penthouses has hit the market for the first time since its completion five years ago.

The listing provides the first real look inside the two-level penthouse crowning Norfolk, Forme’s award-winning Goodwin Terrace development which was completed in 2021.

The penthouse sold off the plan for $5.35 million around 18 months before construction was completed and has remained tightly held ever since, meaning its resale offers the first insight inside one of Burleigh’s most architecturally impressive apartment buildings.

The four-bedroom residence spans approximately 461 sqm, comprising 276 sqm of internal living and a further 185 sqm of outdoor space across its two levels.

Its position on Goodwin Terrace gives the penthouse one of the Gold Coast’s comparatively rare true north-to-water aspects, with views stretching from Burleigh Headland along the coastline towards the towers of Surfers Paradise. Floor-to-ceiling glazing has been used extensively throughout the residence, framing the ocean outlook from almost every principal living space.

Forme, led by Managing Director David Calvisi, acquired the prime 1,012 sqm site, formerly home to The Fish House restaurant, before developing Norfolk as the first new multi-residential project delivered on Goodwin Terrace in around three decades.

The strength of the location was clear. The more unusual proposition was the building itself.

Forme appointed Koichi Takada Architects to design the 10-level development, marking the practice’s first Gold Coast building. Rather than treating Norfolk’s beachfront setting as a backdrop, Takada used the Norfolk Island pines along the foreshore as the basis for the architecture.

Curved balcony slabs and horizontal battens create the building’s distinctive layered exterior. Sliding timber screens can be repositioned for privacy, shade and protection from the coastal conditions, continuously changing the appearance of the façade.

Takada has compared the concept to the structure of a pinecone, whose overlapping layers open and close according to environmental conditions. In an earlier account of the project, the architect said the objective was to celebrate the site and create a stronger connection between the residences and the elements outside.

The response helped turn Norfolk into an architectural marker for Burleigh’s transformation.

Norfolk comprises 12 half-floor apartments, two dual-level penthouses and one two-level beach house. MIM Design created the interiors, Hutchinson Builders undertook construction and Plus Architecture supplied documentation services for the builder.

Inside Residence 901, MIM Design’s restrained palette brings together timber, natural stone and tailored joinery without competing with the outlook. Travertine surfaces have subsequently received paint-protection film, while the home is being offered with a custom furniture package.

A private lift opens directly into the main living level. Living, dining and media spaces are arranged along the view, accompanied by a concealed bar and a broad north-eastern terrace.

The kitchen has an oversized stone island, European appliances and bespoke cabinetry, supported by a butler’s pantry and separate scullery. An integrated RTI system controls lighting, climate, fans, security, entertainment and audio using in-home touchscreens or a smartphone application.

The principal suite occupies a private wing with ocean views, a dressing room and ensuite. Two additional bedrooms have their own ensuites, while a fourth bedroom can operate as an executive study. A concealed Murphy bed allows that room to accommodate guests when required.

The rooftop is what moves the residence beyond even a generously proportioned beachfront apartment.

Reserved exclusively for the penthouse, it contains a heated lap pool, landscaped gardens, several entertaining areas and an alfresco kitchen with a built-in barbecue. An integrated outdoor cinema allows the rooftop to function as an open-air screening room above the Pacific.

Four side-by-side secure car spaces, dedicated electric-vehicle charging and private storage address practical constraints often encountered by prestige-apartment buyers. The parking allocation is particularly relevant for owners moving from a large house or maintaining a car collection.

Norfolk’s wider amenities include a beach-club-style residents’ area, swimming pool, gymnasium and sauna. Burleigh Beach is directly opposite, while James Street, Burleigh Head National Park and restaurants including Rick Shores and The Tropic are within walking distance.

The building’s reputation has also moved well beyond its beachfront address. Norfolk received both jury and popular-choice honours in the mid-rise multi-unit housing category at the 2022 Architizer A+Awards. It won a Queensland Australian Institute of Architects award for multiple housing and was named the 2022 Medium-Density Residential Development of the Year by The Urban Developer. Further recognition came from the Master Builders awards and Architecture MasterPrize.

Calvisi later said the aim with Norfolk was to produce something the Gold Coast had not previously seen.

The penthouse is being marketed through expressions of interest by Dean Pegoraro of Whitefox Gold Coast.

One of the World’s Most Expensive Luxury Property Markets Is Becoming a Lot Cheaper

Hong Kong’s superluxury homes have lost more than a quarter of their value. Prices haven’t hit the bottom yet.

A two-level penthouse atop Burleigh Heads’ award-winning Norfolk development has hit the market for the first time, offering sweeping ocean views and a private rooftop pool.