Residential buildings stand in the Shouson Hill, center, and Deep Water Bay, right, areas of Hong Kong, China, on Monday, Jan. 15, 2018 (VIVEK PRAKASH / BLOOMBERG)

The US government is selling its Hong Kong consulate staff quarters, estimated to be worth more than US$400 million.

The compound is located in Shouson Hill, on the southern side of Hong Kong Island, where some of the city’s richest tycoons, including Li Ka-Shing, own houses

The compound is located in Shouson Hill, on the southern side of Hong Kong Island, where some of the city’s richest tycoons, including Li Ka-Shing, own houses. Comprising several apartment buildings spread over almost 95,000 square feet (8,825 square meters) of land, the property is worth between HK$3.1 billion (US$400 million) and HK$3.5 billion, according to Vincorn Consulting and Appraisal Ltd.

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“The State Department’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations regularly reviews the US government’s overseas real estate holdings as part of its global reinvestment program,” a department representative said in an email Sunday. “As part of that program, the State Department has decided to sell the Shouson Hill property.”

The department will invest in enhancing other US government-owned assets in Hong Kong, including the Consulate General’s office building, the representative said.

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Property agents say the sale is likely to be purely a business decision.

“This has been quite a phenomenon in the past few years in the area,” said Louis Ho, principal sales director at Centaline Property Agency Ltd, whose patch includes Shouson Hill. “Owners may want to sell properties after seeing the valuations rise so much over time.”

The US government purchased the property in 1948, records lodged with the Land Registry show.

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While records don’t stretch back that far, Hong Kong property prices have more than quadrupled since 2004, and the city has ranked as the world’s least affordable housing market for the past decade.