Weeks after a Hong Kong developer announced it had sold a flat for HK$439m (£35m), the eye-catching price tag is still being treated with scepticism.

Doubts were raised immediately over the HK$88,000 per square foot sale price and local newspapers are still trying to establish the identity of the buyer.

The 4,671-sq ft five-bedroom duplex apartment sits on the second highest floor of 39 Conduit Road with a bird’s eye view of Victoria Harbour. Even viewing the unfinished flat, sold by developer Henderson Land, required a bank draft of 5 per cent of the asking price, or about HK$21.9m.

'[In Hong Kong], high-profile sales are better than advertisements,' says Nicole Wong, regional head of property research at CLSA. 'They are so visible and can generate a belief that the market is doing great. Most people only buy flats two or three times in their lives. So when they see that rich people are buying, they would think they should buy too.'

Financial Times