Hang Seng Bank COO Vivien Chiu acquires Hong Kong luxury flat for $5.14M

She paid HK$24,228 per square foot (US$33,517 per square meter) for the 1,651 square-foot flat, a record price for the property this year, according to real estate agents cited by the South China Morning Post.

The property, located in the Beverly Hill project in the Happy Valley area, previously changed hands for HK$16 million in 2014. It was handed over to Chiu on Monday, Land Registry records show.

View of Hong Kong from the Peak, May 27, 2023. Photo by Simon Jankowski via Reuters

Chiu had previously worked in several departments at HSBC before joining Hang Seng in 2022.

In August, Diana Cesar, Hang Seng’s CEO at the time, bought a flat at the luxury Flora Garden complex in the Tai Hang Mid-Levels area for HK$26.63 million.

HSBC has recently announced plans to buy out Hang Seng Bank for HK$106.1 billion and take the troubled lender private. Founded in 1933, Hang Seng will maintain its own license, governance, and brand, as reported by Bloomberg.

The acquisition comes amid Hong Kong’s banking sector grappling with the worst real estate downturn since the late 1990s, with home prices in the city having fallen around 30% from their 2021 peak, per Reuters.

But the housing sector has seen some signs of recovery. Data from the Rating and Valuation Department (RVD) showed the city’s official index for second-hand home prices has edged up by 1.26% since April.

It rose for the fifth consecutive month in August, trimming the overall decline this year to 0.24%.

Some 5,291 homes changed hands that same month, an 8.2% drop from July but still 44.8% higher than a year earlier. The total transaction value reached HK$42.2 billion, down 8.9% month-on-month yet up 48.2% year-on-year.

Between January and August, combined sales of new and existing homes climbed 10% from a year earlier to 42,379 units, the highest level for the period in four years, according to property agency Midland Realty.