Eu sells Mid-Levels flat for $36m

Former Civic Party chairwoman and senior counsel Audrey Eu Yuet-mee has joined the rush of opposition politicians to sell their properties amid Hong Kong's worsening political situation.

Eu's property was a 2,027-square-feet and four-room apartment in Cliffview Mansions on 17-25 Conduit Road in the Mid-Levels along with a car parking space.

Back in 1988, she spent HK$2.3 million purchasing it in the name of a company called Albacore with its CEOs being herself and doctor Edmund Woo Kin-wai.

She sold it for HK$36 million - or HK$17,761 per square feet - in mid-January, according to the Land Registry, after putting the property up for sale at HK$42 million last year.

According to real estate records, a similar 2,872-square-feet apartment on the same floor was sold for HK$60.3 million, or HK$21,000 per sq ft, in March 2019.

Eu is representing Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying in his illegal assembly case in connection to a protest from Victoria Park in August 2019.

She will face her younger brother Benjamin Yu on February 16, who will represent the prosecution. He took up the offer after it was turned down by queen's counsel David Perry following criticism in his home country Britain.

The sale came as former Labour Party vice-chairman Lee Cheuk-yan sold his Mei Foo Sun Chuen flat for HK$10 million last month - about HK$1 million lower than market price - saying he has "no confidence in the housing market."

Around the same time, Democratic Party vice-chairman Lam Cheuk-ting sold his three-room flat in Sha Tin's Garden Vista for HK$12.68 million.

Activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung's father, Roger Wong Wai-ming, sold his South Horizons flat in November for HK$9.88 million, or HK$15,000 per sq ft. Wong's parents and brother then moved to Australia.

The convener of the Alliance for True Democracy, Joseph Cheng Yu-shek, also left for Australia last month.

Cheng announced that he was overseas during an online radio program in December.

The Civic Party last year faced the biggest setback in its 14-year history when then party leader Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu and members Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, Kwok Ka-ki and Cheng Tat-hung were disqualified from running in the now postponed Legislative Council election.

The first three incumbents were disqualified from their Legco seats.