Stanley Ho recently matched his own world record price paid for a truffle when he bought a couple white truffles for a total cost of $330,000 at a truffle auction.

The billionaire made his winning bid through representatives at the event held at his own Grand Lisboa hotel in Macau last week end.

Ho’s winning bid bought him a giant truffle from Italy’s central Tuscany region that weighed about 900 grams and a smaller one of about 400 grams.

A rare residential site on Hong Kong’s prestigious Victoria Peak fetched 1.33 billion US dollars at auction Wednesday, boosting one of the world’s most dizzying luxury property markets.

The plot of land at 103 Mount Nicholson Road, which offers a panoramic view of Hong Kong’s world-famous Victoria Harbour, was snapped up by Nan Fung Group after attracting nearly 50 bids at this year’s fourth government land sale.

The 10.4 billion Hong Kong dollar price was 30% higher than the opening bid and at the higher end of the 8.1-11.5 billion dollars forecast by a market-watchers.

With the floor area of the planned property projected at 324,862 square feet (30,181 square metres), the price works out at 32,014 US dollars a square foot.

Hong Kong’s billionaire tycoons enjoy a status close to royalty in Asia’s wealth-obsessed financial hub.

The city’s richest man Li Ka-shing has the fame of a movie star, while the court case involving the will of eccentric pig-tailed billionaire Nina Wang last year enthralled Hong Kong with its brew of sex, money and power.

But Wang’s death in 2007 and the hospitalisation last year of casino tycoon Stanley Ho were a stark reminder that some of Hong Kong’s 40 richest tycoons — synonymous with its post-war economic success — are in their twilight years.

They will leave behind eye-popping fortunes worth more than 130 billion US dollars and vast business empires that control everything from supermarkets and property development to ports and telecoms.

Hong Kong officials said Wednesday they will look into the controversial sale of a luxury flat that fell through months after its developer said it had snatched world-record price.

Property giant Henderson Land Development revealed on Tuesday that sales of as many as 20 out of the 24 units at “39 Conduit Road” had been cancelled.

The scrapped deals included what was supposed to be the world’s most expensive apartment, a 6,158-square-foot duplex sold for $56.6 million in October.

A plot of land in one of Hong Kong‘s most sought-after areas sold for a record 1.82 billion Hong Kong dollars ($233 million USD) at auction Tuesday.

The 4,956-square-metre plot fetched 17 per cent more than the reserve price.

The winning bid was made by Henderson Land Development Company vice-chairman Martin Lee.

The price was above market expectations and a record high for a Hong Kong auction of luxury residential land, according to auctioneers Jones Lang LaSalle.

A Hong Kong property tycoon and his wife have reportedly paid $160,406 for a huge Italian white truffle in 2006, which may be the world’s most expensive ever.

Gordon Wu and his wife outbid connoisseurs from France and Italy to win the 3.3 pounds Alba white truffle from an international auction, a spokeswoman for the Ritz-Carlton hotel, which hosted the Hong Kong part of the auction, said.

It was the second time Hong Kong bidders won a pricey fungus at the annual auction, held in Grizane, Italy and satellite-linked with Paris and Hong Kong.

In 2005, a group of bidders in Hong Kong paid 95,000 euros for a 2.7-pound truffle, a purchase later named by Guinness World Records as the most valuable truffle bought at an auction.