Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Henderson Land Development Co., the Hong Kong-based builder controlled by billionaire Lee Shau-kee, is seeking to sell an apartment at its new residential project in the affluent Mid-Levels district at an Asian record price.

The developer is offering a 5,636 square-foot apartment at the project, 39 Conduit Road, for HK$357.7 million ($46.2 million), according to a price list it e-mailed today. This means the developer is charging HK$63,473 a square foot. It would set an Asian record on a square foot basis if sold before two penthouses in the city offered at HK$75,000, according to Xavier Wong, Knight Frank’s head of Greater China research.

Hong Kong luxury home prices and sales have jumped this year as low supply and ample liquidity drive demand for real estate. Buying from mainland Chinese and foreigners are also lifting prices, Buggle Lau, chief analyst at Midland Holdings Ltd. said Oct. 6.

“Most luxury apartments are just like antiques and paintings,” Knight Frank’s Wong said today by phone. “There’s an asset bubble forming; at such a phase in the property market, anything can happen.”

The split-level apartment that Henderson Land is selling is on the 66th floor of the project, according to the price list. Another home on the same floor, spanning 5,131 square feet, is being offered at HK$311.4 million, or HK$60,696 a square foot.

The top floor of the project is the 88th, said Bonnie Ngan, a spokeswoman at Henderson. The prices were earlier reported by The Standard newspaper in Hong Kong.

Henderson’s shares rose 1.4 percent to HK$53.75 at 2:50 p.m. in Hong Kong. The stock has gained 86 percent this year, making it the best performer on the Hang Seng Property Index that tracks six of the city’s biggest developers.

Luxury Home Sales

Luxury-home sales in Hong Kong, or those worth more than HK$10 million, almost tripled in September to 1,351 from a month earlier, the Land Registry said Oct. 5. In September 2008, 168 transactions were completed. Prices for these homes climbed as much as 28 percent in the first nine months of this year, Colliers International Ltd. said Sept. 28.

A one-bedroom apartment in Hong Kong’s Kowloon district sold for a record HK$24.5 million, Centaline Property Agency Ltd. said last month.

Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd., the world’s largest developer by market value, last month raised the price of two penthouses in Hong Kong by 50 percent to a record HK$75,000 a square foot, making them the world’s second most expensive homes.

A penthouse in Monaco was priced at the equivalent of HK$100,000 per square foot earlier this year, Knight Frank’s Wong said last month.

Spread over three floors, the Sun Hung Kai apartments each have 4,000 square feet, an outdoor garden and a swimming pool.

Separately, Sun Hung Kai ranked no. 1 by posting HK$18.4 billion in sales of new private homes in the first nine months of this year, Centaline, one of Hong Kong’s biggest property agencies, said in a report yesterday.

Following Sun Hung Kai was New World Development Co., which collected HK$13.3 billion, and Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. with HK$12 billion, Centaline said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chia-Peck Wong in Hong Kong at cpwong@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 14, 2009 02:55 EDT