A property unit of Australia's biggest bank Macquarie Group has sold a luxury residential project in Shanghai at below cost.

The bank recently disposed of the 26-storey City Apartments to a mainland investor for less than 300 million yuan (HK$340.17m), sources said.

Macquarie declined to comment.

Macquarie had bought the property for 400 million yuan four years ago. A source said it managed to sell it for more than the price offered by a previous potential buyer.

South China Morning Post