Buildings are seen from Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, on Aug 28, 2019. (PAUL YEUNG / BLOOMBERG)

Wharf Holdings Ltd teamed up with Hong Kong property tycoons to win a premium land site in the luxurious Peak area for a record-breaking price.

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The consortium includes a Wharf subsidiary, an entity owned by Sino Land Co’s Chairman Robert Ng, C C Land Holdings Ltd’s Cheung Chung Kiu, Chinese Estates Holdings Ltd’s Chan Hoi-wan and her brother-in-law Thomas Lau. It won the residential land for HK$7.25 billion (US$935 million), a government statement showed late Wednesday.

The higher-than-expected price reflects the developers’ confidence that the city’s luxury home market will rebound after the pandemic. Wharf also bought the adjacent residential site for HK$12 billion in December

The 54,541 square-foot site can produce a maximum of about 144,970 square feet of floor area. The bidding price translates into HK$50,011 per square foot for the prime land plot, the highest on record for a residential site sold in government tenders.

The plot was previously valued by Midland IC&I Ltd at HK$6.8 billion.

The higher-than-expected price reflects the developers’ confidence that the city’s luxury home market will rebound after the pandemic. Prices of high-end residential properties in Hong Kong fell last year as cross-border travel restrictions made mainland buyers scant.

Luxury home prices dropped 8 percent in 2020, more than the 1 percent decline in the mass market, data from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc show.

Wharf also bought the adjacent residential site for HK$12 billion in December.

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Bidders in the tender that missed out included CK Asset Holdings Ltd, Henderson Land Development Co, Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd and K Wah International Holdings Ltd.