World’s most expensive home per square foot lists for C$116 million in Hong Kong

Canadians may grumble about the frothy state of our housing market which continues to keep the price of a home well out of the reach of many would-be buyers.

But we’ve got nothing on Hong Kong where a developer has just listed the world’s most expensive home on a square-foot basis ever to be sold.

Sun Hung Kai Properties is looking to fetch 819.1 million Hong Kong dollars – about C$116 million – for its cozily named (not) House No. 1 in the city’s tony Victoria’s Peak neighbourhood, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

At full price, the sale price smashes existing global records with a cost of HK$175,735 (C$24,900) per square foot. It would also make it the most expensive home ever sold in a city known for its crazy real estate.

Interested? A floor plan of the 4,661-sq.-ft. home posted on the developer’s website shows it has four bedrooms, a study and a family room spanning three floors. Not to worry about stairs: there is a centrally-located elevator to whisk you up and down, while the deck comes equipped with a sizable private swimming pool, Jacuzzi, garden and rooftop terrace offering sweeping views across Victoria Harbour.

There is, of course, also plenty of parking available for your Jaguar XKR, Rolls-Royce, Bentley or what have you.

Oh, and here’s a little more incentive should you need it: A buyer will be offered a 3-per-cent discount if a deal is made within five months. Sun Hung Kai is also offering purchasers who are required to pay the foreign buyer’s tax an 11.75 per cent rebate, while local buyers will get a cashback equal to 8.5 percent of the purchase price, according to Bloomberg.

There are a total of 12 houses for sale in the development. The cheapest unit is priced at HK$393.4 million (C$55.7 million), or HK$105,441/sq.ft. (C$14,900).

This isn’t the first time Hong Kong has broken a real-estate record. The Wall Street Journal reports the most expensive home sold to date in Hong Kong was a 5,989 sq.ft. mansion that sold for HK$800 million (C$113.2 million) or HK$133,578/sq.ft. (C$18,900) in 2011. It’s probably no coincidence the home is also located in Victoria Peak.

Back home in Canada, Toronto and Vancouver continue their race for the title of Canada’s Most Expensive City.

Toronto’s York Mills and Forest Hill South landed the one and two spots in Canadian Business magazine’s 2014 list of richest neighbourhoods. An average home in those exclusive locales will run you about $3.4 and $3.18 million, respectively. Vancouver’s ritzy Shaughnessy Heights and Sandy Cove in West Vancouver come in third and fourth, with average house prices listed at $3.09 and $2.9 million. Toronto’s Lawrence Park North neighbourhood rounds out the top five with an average house price of $2.8 million.

As of June, the national average price of a home in Canada was $413,215, up 6.9 per cent from the same month last year, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.

If you’re not looking to live in Vancouver or Toronto, you’ll probably get a better deal. Excluding those two markets, the average price is a more modest $336,164 (a year-over-year increase of 5.2 per cent).