Former Chinese Estates Chairman Joseph Lau Marketing London Mansion for $117M

Former Chinese Estates Holdings chairman Joseph Lau has reportedly put up for sale a London mansion at an asking price of £90 million ($117 million), marking the latest UK asset tied to the the fugitive tycoon and the HKEX-listed developer controlled by his family to be put on the block in recent months.

Savills has been appointed to find a buyer for 82 Eaton Square in London’s exclusive Belgravia neighbourhood, according to UK media outlet The Telegraph, which first reported the off-market exercise.

Lau is putting the property up for sale amid a retreat from the British capital by Chinese Estates, with the developer in September reportedly putting up for sale a commercial and residential property at 11-12 St James’s Square and having sold an office block at 14 St George Street in August, both of which are located in London’s West End area. The company is also understood to be weighing an exit from its flagship office redevelopment project at 120 Fleet Street in the City of London.

Chinese Estates swung to a HK$422 million loss during the first half of this year from a HK$147 million profit in the corresponding period in 2023. The shortfall, which followed a 93 percent plunge in annual net profit last year, was attributed to fair value markdowns on the company’s investment properties in Hong Kong.

High-Profile Residents

Located a 20-minute walk from Buckingham Palace at the intersection of Eaton Square and Lyall Street, Lau’s luxury London pad is said to include a swimming pool, lift, and spa. The glitzy neighbourhood has been home to high-profile figures including former UK prime ministers Neville Chamberlain and Margaret Thatcher, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, and actors Sean Connery and Roger Moore.

From their June 2014 peak through the end of the second quarter, prices for prime residential properties in central London valued at £5 million or more have declined 19 percent on a nominal basis and 40 percent in real terms, according to a September report by Savills. Transactions of London homes priced above £10 million fell 37 year-on-year in the third quarter, according to a report this month by JLL.

Lau, 73, currently ranks sixth on Forbes’ list of Hong Kong’s richest residents with a net worth of $13.1 billion. In 2014, a Macau court found Lau guilty of bribery and money laundering and sentenced the tycoon to a five-year jail term in absentia. Following his conviction, Lau resigned as chairman of Chinese Estates, with the company remaining under his family’s control.

London Exodus

Chinese Estates is among a growing cohort of Hong Kong-based investors rushing to divest UK assets amid property slumps both in London and at home, marking a reversal from the influx of Asian investment into the British capital in the years leading up to the pandemic.

In September, HKEX-listed developer China Motor Bus Company agreed to sell the Albany House office block in London’s Westminster area to UK-based real estate and hospitality firm Integrity International Group for £47 million.

That deal came a month after Hong Kong investor Lai Wing-to sold a commercial building at 147-155 Wardour Street to Singapore-based fund manager HECapital for around £35 million. In August the veteran property player offloaded an office and retail building at 291 Oxford Street & 2 Harewood Place to JP Morgan for £71.4 million after having been reported earlier this year to be seeking a buyer for Standbrook House at 2-5 Old Bond Street.

In June, a private fund backed by New World Development’s Cheng family, Wharf Real Estate’s Woo family, and Far East Consortium International chairman David Chiu among other investors, cut the asking price for an office building at 3 St James’s Square by 13 percent.

In January, local developer and investor Oval Real Estate teamed up with US investment firm Elliott Management to acquire a set of 27 assets from Langham Estate, a sprawling collection of West End commercial and residential properties owned by Hong Kong property tycoon Samuel Tak Lee.