Distressed Mainland Tycoon Sells Condo on Hong Kong’s Peak for $66M

A decade after buying Asia’s priciest condo, a mainland tycoon who defaulted on loan obligations linked to his purchase of a Quarry Bay office complex has sold the home on Hong Kong’s Peak for HK$512 million ($66 million), according to public records.

Chen Chang Wei, chairman of Hengli Investments Holding, and once a significant shareholder in China’s Dalian Wanda Group, sold his penthouse in Opus Hong Kong for HK$2.4 million more than he paid to acquire it in 2015, in what was then the continent’s most expensive apartment purchase.

The mainland property investor has had the home on the market since mid-2024 with Hengli having failed since 2023 to make payment on a loan linked to Chen’s HK$15 billion purchase of the Cityplaza Three and Cityplaza Four office towers in Hong Kong’s Quarry Bay area in 2018.

Chen’s sale comes as falling real estate values and challenging lending conditions, along with a slumping economy in mainland China have led to growing number of distressed tycoons selling  Hong Kong properties. In 2023 a fifth floor unit formerly belonging to Cheung Kei Group chairman Chen Hongtian was sold after being seized by a bank in the wake of a loan default.

Exiting at a Loss

With the sale price translating to HK$94,048 per square foot, Chen sold the property to overseas registered private company Harbour Sky Group Limited at a markup of 0.5 percent over the 2015 purchase price. Adding in stamp duty of HK$21.7 million paid at the time of the 2015 purchase and a broker’s commission of HK$5.1 million on the sale, Chen will book a loss of about HK$24.4 million.

Situated at 53 Stubbs Road, Opus Hong Kong was developed by Swire Properties and designed by American architect Frank Gehry, with just 14 units in the tower.

The only previous resale of a property in the building was the 2023 sale of Cheng Hongtian’s fifth floor unit for HK$418 million ($53.4 million), with that deal taking place at 39 percent below valuation or HK$81,102 per square foot.

“The low transaction price [of Chen Hongtian’s seized home] was probably due to the forced sale… Being such a unique property in such a prime location, the market value could fluctuate a lot due to the lack of direct comparables,” Bobby Mak, real estate valuer at Hong Kong-based CHFT Advisory and Appraisal, told Mingtiandi.

Quarry Bay Assets Targetted in Talks

Four months after agreeing to buy Cityplaza Three and Cityplaza Four from Swire Properties in 2018, Henglilong, a unit of Chen’s Hengli Investments, recruited Gaw Capital Partners to take as much as a 65 percent stake in the office complex.

In July of last year Gaw Capital attempted to acquire Hengli’s 35 percent stake in the properties via a public auction, before declining to put in a bid in the tender which closed in September.

In March Bloomberg reported Gaw Capital was in talks with lenders to refinance or make partial payment a HK$10.3 billion loan linked to the assets which was set to mature this month. No statements have yet been made regarding resolution of the debt.

Chen grew his fortune developing commercial properties in the Fujian provincial capital of Fuzhou before selling a Hong Kong-listed unit of his Hengli Group to Dalian Wanda Group in a move that made possible the HK$675 million backdoor listing of what would become HKEX-listed Wanda Hotel Development, with Chen becoming the company’s second largest shareholder following the deal.

In 2017 Chen’s Hengli Investments acquired Lloyds Banking Group’s London headquarters from the British bank for over £150 million (then $216 million).