Most expensive property for 2016? A Hong Kong mansion that hadn't been built yet

If you’re thinking of upsizing in 2017, it can’t hurt to get some inspiration on the larger, decidedly lux-er side of living.

Let’s get into the mood by taking a look at the most stratospheric, eye-wateringly ridiculous sales of the previous year. 

For starters, would you pay $358 million for a house on top of a hill? What about one that hasn’t quite been built yet?

The single biggest house sale, globally, was for just that – a property under construction in Hong Kong’s The Peak district, with the South China Morning Post reporting that billionaire tycoon Chen Hongtian had spent $HK2.1 billion on 15 Gough Hill Road. 

The 5630-square-metre property was scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016, and Mr Hongtian apparently managed to avoid paying $HK170 million in stamp duty.

He plans to live there, as the existing 478-square-metre home that he purchased in August 2015 at Opus Hong Kong was “too tiny”. He is quoted as saying that he has made more than $HK10 billion worth of investments in Hong Kong.

Also hailing from Asia, the runner-up was Taohuayuan, a 32-bedroom, 32-bathroom mansion on the market for $201 million – or 1 billion Chinese yuan. On an island in Dushu Lake, the property had several interested parties from overseas, according to listing agent Juan Zhao Feng.

The rest of the year’s biggest sales come from the US. The very beginning of 2016 saw the sale of a Dallas mansion to Andrew Beal, a real estate and banking tycoon, for $US100 million ($130 million). The almost-2700-square-metre Crespi Hicks Estate, as it’s known, was originally listed for $US135 million two years previously.

In June, the famous Playboy mansion in California – home to Hugh Hefner –  sold for over $US100 million to it’s next door neighbour. The property was listed at the start of 2016 for $US200 million.

The buyer was Daren Metropoulos, the co-owner of the Hostess Brands bakery company. He is leasing the property back to the 90-year-old Hefner, allowing him to stay there for the rest of his life.

The third $US100 million sale of 2016 was also in California – a deal for a newly constructed home in Holmby Hills bought by Detroit Pistons franchise owner Tom Gores. It was built on the site of Barbra Streisand’s old Mon Reve estate. Gores apparently traded some of his existing LA properties as part of the deal.

The 10-bedroom, 20-bathroom, 2787-metre-square home comes with a movie theatre complex and private hiking trails.

Over on the east coast, the 432 Park Avenue penthouse sold for $US87.7 million in September, with Curbed reporting the buyer as a Saudi Arabian billionaire, Fawaz Al Hokair. The asking price on the top apartments in the city’s tallest residential tower was $US95 million.

So how does all that compare to Australia? At home the biggest sale was – unsurprisingly – in the Sydney top-end suburb of Vaucluse, where MenuLog co-founder Leon Kamenev dropped close to $80 million on an amalgamation of four properties.

The former refugee from Russia, who got his start in Australia delivering pizza while studying English, is reportedly looking to build his own compound.

Meanwhile in Melbourne, 9 Towers Road, Toorak broke the existing house price record for the city by selling for $26.25 million in December. 

The owners, Daniel and Danielle Besen, had never lived in the property, which took seven years to build.

Over the pond in New Zealand, the biggest sale was $NZ32.5 million ($31.3 million) for the now-infamous Kim DotCom mansion – with the buyers reported as “millionaire siblings” Anna, Mat and Nick Mowbray. 

Despite the association with the Megaupload founder, the property was actually owned by Richard Bradley and his wife Ruth, the British couple behind Chrisco Christmas Hampers.