Three months ago, Asia-based real estate blog Mingtiandi reported on the sale of one of Hong Kong’s most extravagant homes, a nearly 12,000-square-foot hilltop mansion in the highly prestigious Peak district. The home, a two-story limestone-facade structure with lavish ornamentation and unobstructed views of the city skyline and Victoria Harbor, sold for HK$838 million, or about US$107 million.
The sale was notable not only because it is one of Hong Kong’s biggest property deals in recent years, but also because it is one of the few ultra-luxury homes in Hong Kong to be sold to a mainland buyer in recent years, amid a prolonged slump in Hong Kong’s property market and a sluggish economy on the mainland. According to land records, the house was acquired by a company controlled by a Shenzhen-based woman named Gu Fang.
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People familiar with the properties now report Robb Report that the same woman, Gu, is also directly linked to the purchase of three of the most expensive U.S. homes sold in the past 18 months, two of which are high-profile properties with ties to Hollywood celebrities. In October 2022, a mystery buyer paid $55 million for reality TV personalities Dr. Terry and Heather Dubrow’s Newport Coast mansion. Four months later, a mystery buyer spent another $55 million on actor Mark Wahlberg’s extravagant Beverly Hills mansion.
Although the name of the new owner was not disclosed at the time, it was widely reported that both the Dubrows’ home and Wahlberg’s estate were purchased by the same buyer, an anonymous billionaire from mainland China who is now believed to have direct ties to Gu.
Gu, believed to be in her 50s, is the long-time wife of Xu Hang, one of China’s richest men and co-founder of Mindray Medical, China’s largest medical device manufacturer.
That Xu and Gu are on the hunt for luxury real estate despite the general economic slowdown in China is perhaps no great surprise. The Covid-19 pandemic proved extraordinarily lucrative for Mindray; in 2020, the net worth of the company’s co-founder Li Xiting – Singapore’s richest man – reportedly increased by a staggering $1 billion per month due to high global demand for ventilators. As for Xu, Forbes says his personal net worth has also risen sharply in recent years, from $1.8 billion in 2018 to a high of $19.5 billion in 2021. Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his current net worth at $12.1 billion, making him the richest man in Shenzhen. Forbes notes that he is the fourth richest man in the world in the healthcare sector.
As it turns out, the Beverly Hills, Newport Coast and Hong Kong mansions aren’t the only extravagant homes in Xu’s portfolio. In early 2023, billionaire real estate developer Stephen Ross sold his mansion-sized penthouse at New York City’s Time Warner Center for $40 million, a significant discount from its original asking price of $75 million. The buyer, according to the documents, was another LLC with ties to Xu and Gu.
Adding up all four purchases, Xu has spent $257 million – in cash – on luxury real estate since the end of 2022, although it’s also worth noting that the tycoon was able to get big discounts on at least three of his four new properties. The Hong Kong mansion, which sold for $107 million, was originally listed for a whopping $166 million. The Wahlberg home and Manhattan penthouse were also purchased at significant discounts – the Wahlberg property at 37% off its $87.5 million list price and the New York property at 47% below its original asking price.
In total, Xu was able to knock $126 million off the asking price on these three homes alone. The fourth property, the Dubrow estate, was never officially listed on the open market, although it was reportedly offered as a pocket listing with an asking price of over $60 million.
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