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Hong Kong (AFP) Nov 11, 2010 Luxury home sales in Hong Kong have smashed previous records, the city's biggest realtor said Thursday, despite government measures to cool a market that has rebounded after the global financial crisis. Homes that fetched a price tag of at least 20 million Hong Kong dollars (2.58 million US dollars) have surpassed previous highs for both the number of transactions and total sale proceeds, real estate giant Centaline said. The glitzy financial hub recorded 2,628 such high-value transactions, worth 102.1 billion Hong Kong dollars in all between January and November 9 this year, it said. Both topped the previous highest figures for an entire year since the property agency began conducting research in 1996. Previous peaks were recorded in 1997 and 2007, when there were 2,240 and 2,399 transactions respectively, worth 76.8 billion Hong Kong dollars and 96.4 billion Hong Kong dollars. In a broader category, average prices for homes of at least 100 square metres (1,100 square feet) are now 14 percent above what they fetched before the 1997 downturn, according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) -- the city's de facto central bank. The latest property figures come amid fears of a property bubble in Hong Kong, a densely populated city of seven million that is famous for its sky-high residential rents and stunningly wealthy tycoons. The rise in the market has come despite Hong Kong's government raising the stamp duty on luxury property sales to 4.25 percent from 3.75 percent. Officials have also unveiled a host of other measures aimed at reining in the property market, including holding land auctions to boost supply and tightening mortgage lending. Concern has spiked after a massive stimulus package was unveiled to kickstart the US economy, raising worries that a flood of speculative money could overheat Hong Kong's already giddy property market. Centaline said this week that Hong Kong had also set a new commercial property sale record after a 79th floor unit in The Center -- a downtown skyscraper owned by Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing -- sold for 338 million Hong Kong dollars (44 million US dollars). The sale last month worked out to about 25,580 Hong Kong dollars a square foot, according to government data.
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