Beijing luxury villas go on sale at record high prices

Upmarket villas in Beijing

Twelve villas with the highest price tags in Beijing went on sale on July 10, reports the local Beijing News.

Located in the capital's Tongzhou suburban district of Beijing, these villas line the northern end of the historic Grand Canal. Each has a floor area of 1,500 square meters, with a yard of about 2,666 square meters.

Each property priced at 300 million yuan (US$47.5 million) each, or 200,000 yuan (US$31,500) per square meter, even higher than the record of 160,000 yuan (US$25,000) per square meter set by the luxury mansion Diaoyutai No.7 in Beijing early this year.

The developer of the villas, Taihe Group, said it acquired the right to use the land in 2003 at a low price because the land was remote from downtown Beijing. The villas were built at a cost of 50 million yuan (US$7.9 million) each, and Taihe said it would be satisfied if the entire project could be sold for 1 billion yuan (US$158 million).

Beijing News tsaid however that the first batch of 12 villas is likely to sell for more than 3.6 billion yuan (US$560 million), thanks to the country's skyrocketing house prices over the last ten years. It added that the land could accommodate a total of 208 villas.

A Taihe executive said the company would build other villas only after the first dozen are sold, because of the large investment involved in building luxury villas and uncertainty about the takeup.