The world's most expensive apartment sold in this Hong Kong building for 57 million US dollars last year. Will we see some wealthy mainlanders splashing out for more multi-million-dollar apartments in 2010?

Increasing Presence Of Mainland Chinese Buyers Indicates Growing Clout Of This Group In Hong Kong

It’s perhaps no big surprise that mainland Chinese property buyers have snapped up real estate in neighboring Hong Kong, since closer economic ties have blurred the border (financially) since 1997. Now, thousands of businesspeople regularly make the Shenzhen/Zhuhai-Hong Kong commute, and well-heeled mainland shoppers — nicknamed hao ke — often pop over the border for luxury shopping sprees.

Reflecting the growing clout of wealthy mainland Chinese in Hong Kong, figures released this week by Centaline Property Agency indicated that mainland property buyers comprised 18.1% of luxury apartment buyers in 2009, compared to only 11.2% in 2008. According to Wong Leung-shing, an associate director of research at Centaline, this is the fastest rate of growth among mainland buyers of HK luxury apartments (costing at least HK$10 million (US$1.29 million)) in six years. – read more at JingDaily.com…