Property developer Agile’s chairman loses $16M over Hong Kong luxury flat fire sales

The units in Hamburg Villa, located in the Kowloon Tong district of Hong Kong, were sold by the 62-year-old tycoon earlier this month, the South China Morning Post reported, citing an agent from real estate agency Centaline Property.

They brought in a total of HK$90 million despite being collectively valued at HK$213 million.

One of the units, an 872-square-feet (81-square-meter) three-bedroom flat, was sold for HK$8 million at the start of this month, 63% less than its purchase price of HK$21.4 million in 2018.

Chen’s fire sales reflect a broader trend in the property market, where wealthy Chinese individuals have been selling their high-end homes in Hong Kong at massive discounts this year.

These sales have largely been driven by so-called "distressed sellers," whose homes were repossessed by banks or creditors to recover unpaid debts, according to The New York Times.

In the residential sector alone, roughly 75% of luxury property transactions in the first half of 2024 were made by financially stressed sellers, according to real estate firm CBRE.

Data from property consultancy Savills shows that 23 high-end properties were purchased during the period, a 53% year-on-year increase, as reported by Business Insider.

Some of these were heavily discounted compared to their peak prices in 2018, according to Jack Tong, Hong Kong director of research at Savills.