7th September 2026 – (Hong Kong) The Lan Kwai Fong shop that once housed live-band favourite Insomnia has changed hands for HK$58.68 million in a mortgagee sale — a fraction of the HK$250 million the previous owner sought two years ago and a sharp comedown from the HK$168 million paid at the 2015 retail peak.
Receivers instructed agents to market lower-ground Shop A at Ho Lee Commercial Building, 38-44 D’Aguilar Street, Central. The unit measures about 3,228 square feet and was sold vacant on an as-is basis. The deal works out at roughly HK$18,178 a square foot, according to market figures circulating with the completion.
Insomnia was for years a Lan Kwai Fong meeting point known for resident live bands and late-night crowds of bankers, aircrew and weekend revelers. The bar closed after the pandemic reshaped Central nightlife, leaving the large floor plate empty and, eventually, in lenders’ hands as a mortgagee property.
Before that forced sale, the owner had put the shop up for HK$250 million in early 2024. With no taker, the asset passed to a receiver, who cut the asking price first to HK$130 million, then to HK$90 million, and finally cleared it for under HK$60 million at HK$58.68 million — little more than two-tenths of the earlier headline ask.
Land records and market reports trace the owner’s entry to 2015, when the shop was acquired through a company purchase for HK$168 million amid a heated retail and shop boom. Holding for about 11 years failed to protect that capital: against the new price, the book loss exceeds HK$109 million, or about 65.1 per cent.
Market sources identify the buyer as mainland-linked horse owner Alan Hu Chiu-lun, registered with the Hong Kong Jockey Club as Alan Hu. For Lan Kwai Fong landlords and investors, the transaction is another marker of how far prime nightlife floorspace has repriced since the boom years — from seven-figure monthly rents in freer times to a forced sale that finally found a cheque only after successive cuts.
