Hong Kong rich families offload luxury homes to repay debts

A sea-view villa once owned by businessman Chan Ping Che, known as the city’s "King of Cassettes," was recently listed for HK$430 million (US$55 million) by receivers, The Straits Times reported. Chan said he defaulted on a loan of HK$350 million from Fubon Bank Hong Kong earlier this year. The property, occupied by his family since the 1980s, was handed over to receivers in April after he failed to find a buyer despite listing it in late 2023.

Gale Well Group CEO Jacinto Tong sold his penthouse for HK$138 million in April, according to land registry records. Tong and his sister, Rita Tong, have listed around HK$2.2 billion worth of assets for sale in 2025, including luxury homes, office properties and retail space, Bloomberg reported. Commenting on a hotel sale in November 2024, Tong wrote on Facebook: "Making money or posting a loss is a secondary matter, and the most important thing is to avoid negative equity."

The Hong Kong skyline is visible from Victoria Peak in Hong Kong on Feb. 25, 2025. Photo by NurPhoto via AFP

Hong Kong’s property market has been battered by high interest rates and weak demand, pushing home prices down 29% from their 2021 peak, government data shows. The number of households has surged in the last two years. Although interest rates have started to ease, home prices remain near an eight-year lows, according to the Centaline Property Centa-City Leading Index. Office rents are also expected to fall by 8–10% this year due to growing vacancies, according to services and investment management company Colliers International Group.

"People often use leverage to purchase additional properties, amplifying returns when prices rise but also magnifying losses when prices drop," Christopher So, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong, said. "As the market weakens, rental demand and yields also decrease, impacting cash flows for servicing debt and leading to a rising rate of default."

In 2024 a prominent family led by Ho Shung Pun sold seven luxury houses at the Peak, Hong Kong’s most prestigious residential area, to repay private loans. Chan previously made headlines in 2017 for joining a consortium that paid $5.2 billion to acquire most floors of the Center, a major skyscraper in the city’s financial district. He later sold two floors to DBS Bank for more than HK$1.3 billion in 2024, reportedly making a loss on the transaction.

While luxury home transactions had picked up since late 2024, prices remained subdued due to the large supply of distressed assets, Savills reported in March.