A veteran Hong Kong sports administrator has sold a detached house he purchased 52 years ago for more than 250 times the original price.
Lawrence Wai Kam-kee, 80, former chairman of the Hong Kong Football Association, recently sold his home in Kowloon Tong for approximately HK$190 million (about 36.8 billion won, or $24.5 million), the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported Wednesday.
Wai bought the property in 1974 for HK$750,000 (about 145 million won). The sale price is approximately 252 times the acquisition cost. The four-story detached house has a usable area of about 764 square meters, four bedrooms and two parking spaces.
"I had been considering selling for a long time but waited until market conditions improved," Wai said. "I adjusted the timing to get a better price."
He added that the house was too large for him to live alone and that he had already moved out about a year ago. Asked why he did not rent it out, Wai said he decided against it because managing tenants would have been too cumbersome. Beyond his role as Hong Kong Football Association chairman, Wai also served as chairman of the Community Chest of Hong Kong and is a prominent figure in Hong Kong's sports and business circles.
Hong Kong's luxury housing market, which had been in decline for several years, is showing signs of recovery. According to real estate brokerage Midland Realty, transactions of high-end homes priced above HK$100 million totaled 48 in the first quarter of this year, up from 44 in the previous quarter.
Hong Kong's private residential price index reached 307.6 as of February this year, rising for nine consecutive months and hitting its highest level in 22 months. Small-to-medium apartment prices rose 1.61% month-on-month and 7.8% year-on-year.
Midland Realty forecast that total residential sales volume in 2026 will reach approximately 71,000 units, an 8% increase from the previous year. Morgan Stanley upgraded its outlook on Hong Kong's property market to "attractive," projecting that home prices will rise approximately 10% in 2026 and that residential, office and retail rents will all post year-on-year gains simultaneously for the first time since 2018.
Investment bank BOCOM International said that population growth driven by returning Hong Kong residents and the government's talent recruitment schemes, falling interest rates and a rebound in rental demand are restoring confidence in the property market.