35 Bonham Road, center, in the Mid-Levels district in Hong Kong.
Photographer: Paul Yeung/BloombergOpen House: Iconic Hong Kong Townhouse in Trendy Area Lists for $18 Million
Tumbling home prices are reducing redevelopment pressures on a historic property in a city with the most high-rises in the world.
The four-story 1920s townhouse in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels district survived Allied bombing runs during the war. It escaped the demolition wave of the 1970s and ’80s, which replaced the hillside neighborhood’s terraced houses and grand mansions with towering apartment blocks. Now a real estate slump may help preserve the neo-classical building, which is up for sale for the first time in decades.
Typically the outcome for a low-rise property would be the kiss of the wrecking ball, given the potential redevelopment rights. But demand has collapsed and mortgage rates have surged to rewrite the calculus even in such a fashionable area. That’s especially the case for a smaller plot like 35 Bonham Road, where an investor would need to acquire neighboring land to make a project viable.