Hong Kong's Law Society swoops down on entire floor of offices at The Center at half price
the world's most expensive tower at a 50 per cent discount, the latest among astute investors who are picking up property in the city at bargain prices.
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The Law Society paid HK$345 million (US$44 million), or HK$14,000 per sq ft, for 24,980 sq ft (2,320 square metres) on the 26th floor of The Center from Gale Well Group. The property in the Central district was handed over to the Law Society on July 25, according to the Land Registry.
The purchase price was half of the HK$693 million that Gale Well paid in 2021, when its founder and CEO Jacinto Tong Man-leung bought the property from the late Ma Ah-muk. Ma, dubbed Hong Kong's Minibus King, passed away in March last year.
The Law Society is still gathering views from its members for the design of the office floor and has not decided on the date for moving in, a member said.
An interview with property investment firm Gale Well Group's vice chairman and CEO Jacinto Tong Man-leung on February 25, 2025. Photo: Jonathan Wong
The Center, a 73-storey office tower, was sold in 2018 for a record HK$40.2 billion (US$5.2 billion) by the city's wealthiest man, Li Ka-shing, to a group of 10 local tycoons in what was then the world's priciest property deal. Not long after the transaction, Hong Kong's economy was driven into a slump by six months of anti-government protests and three years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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