Chinese tycoon finds Dh180m home 'tiny', pays Dh999m for a bigger one

Finding his Dh180 million apartment in Hong Kong city to be “tiny”, Chinese billionaire Chen Hongtian has paid a whopping Dh999 million to buy a larger apartment for his family.

The low-profile tycoon purchased a 9,212 square feet house at 15 Gough Hill Road house for a record HK$2.1 billion, South China Morning Post said.

“It’s not for speculation,” the billionaire told the newspaper.

“I initially planned to move into the home I bought for HK$380 million last year. But I felt it was a little bit too tiny [for my family] and [I would need] to live in a bigger one later on. That’s why I bought this house.”

The “tiny” property, in fact, is his apartment in The Opus Hong Kong which covers an area of 5,154 square feet for which he paid almost HK$75,000 per square foot.  

“We’re used to living in big houses. We’ve got houses of this grade in numerous cities on the mainland and we will live in this [Peak] house whenever we are in Hong Kong,” Chen told the newspaper.

Sources close the billionaire say he had poured huge amounts of money into high-end property across the world, including in Australia, over the past few years.

In April 2016, Emirates 24/7 reported that the costliest apartments in Dubai will come up in Al Habtoor City and The One at Palm.

Likely to be part of the Ultimate Collection, the VIP penthouses offer 360 degree views of the emirate’s amazing skyline and is likely to be in the range of Dh209 million, according to Tamleek Real Estate Co, the exclusive sales agent for The Residence Collection, Al Habtoor City.  

In March 2016, we reported that that a Dh200 million penthouse in The One at Palm Jumeirah by Omniyat Properties will be ready for occupancy by 2018.

The 42,000-square feet unit will include 17,000 square feet terrace area, private treatment rooms, beauty centre, private steam and sauna facilities and private cinema.

In a statement sent to Emirates 24|7, Knight Frank, the UK-based consultancy, said $1 million (Dh3.67 million) can buy 155 square metres of prime property in Dubai compared to only 17 square metres in Monaco and 20 square metres in Hong Kong.

Read: Costly? You will be surprised what $1mn can buy in Dubai vs the World

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