Wheelock chairman buys Hong Kong luxury home for HK$59.8 million

HONG Kong property heir Douglas Woo bought an apartment in an upscale area for HK$59.8 million (S$10.1 million), as the city’s luxury market is just picking up amid its border reopening.

The chairman of Wheelock & Co, one of Hong Kong’s biggest real estate firms, bought the luxury home this month, according to a Land Registry filing.

The apartment is in a 49-year-old development in Repulse Bay, at the southern end of Hong Kong. The area is favoured by the wealthy. The three-bedroom unit has an area of 1,583 square feet, translating to a per square foot price of HK$37,776. The last transaction in the project was a lower-level home of the same size that sold for HK$60 million in 2020.

A Wheelock representative declined to comment.

Woo paid a 4.25 per cent tax on the purchase, local newspaper Ming Pao reported. A buyer that does not already hold residential properties at the time of purchase qualifies as a first-time buyer. Otherwise, the tax rate for residents with existing home ownership is 15 per cent.

Woo’s father, Peter Woo, is Hong Kong’s sixth-richest person, with a net worth of US$18 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Wheelock holds two listed real estate companies: The Wharf (Holdings) and Wharf Real Estate Investment. The latter reported a 22 per cent decline in revenue in 2022 as tourism in the city halted.

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The Wharf’s signature projects include Mount Nicholson, one of Hong Kong’s most coveted luxury developments that has broken price records. The family’s portfolio also includes the Harbour City and Times Square shopping malls.

The purchase by a buyer as prominent as Woo will further boost sentiment in the market. Hong Kong’s upscale home market has been under pressure amid Covid-19 restrictions and rising interest rates for the past few years. The border reopening with mainland China has improved the outlook, on expectations that wealthy Chinese buyers will return.

The value of luxury home transactions reached an eight-month high of HK$10 billion in January, said Centaline Property Agency. BLOOMBERG