'Modest' Hong Kong mansion to break record for world's most expensive house

 A Hong Kong mansion could be about to break the world record for the most expensive home ever sold.

Priced at $A618 million, you might expect 24 Middle Gap Road to be a sprawling estate with an array of features and bedrooms.

But the property is set on a measly 718 square metres, looks fairly average and only has four bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms and two car spaces.

The hefty asking price comes with the territory – the modest property is in The Peak neighbourhood, one of the most prestigious gated communities in Hong Kong.

This exclusive and wealthy area is home to a wide range of rich listers, from bankers to business magnates to celebrities.

The current world-record for a house is held by a home in the same neighbourhood, sold for $497 million in January 2017. It also held pole position in 2016 too.

The property, and the area it’s in, is perhaps the perfect flag-bearer for a city renowned for being the most expensive for housing in the globe on several fronts.

It is the second-most expensive market when it comes to prestigious real estate too with a $US1 million buying a mere 22 square metres.

Money simply doesn’t buy much in Hong Kong. Skyrocketing rents – and with them the increasing popularity in coffin homes – has earned it the tag of least affordable housing market in the world for the eighth year in row. Sydney comes in a close second.