Home may be where the heart is, but in Hong Kong it comes at a record price ? more than $71 million for a single apartment. Photo: AFP file 

HONG KONG: Home may be where the heart is, but in Hong Kong it comes at a record price ? more than $71 million for a single apartment.

A well-heeled buyer snapped up two adjacent mountain-top pads ? each more than 4,000 square feet (370 square meters) ? for an eye-watering combined price of US$149.1 million.

The smaller of the two properties closed at $71.7 million, making it Asia?s most expensive apartment by area, at a whopping $17,000 per square foot, according to Bloomberg News.

The price smashed the previous record paid for a place to sleep in Hong Kong?s red-hot property market, when a duplex unit on the island topped out at $13,439 per square foot in September.

A month later an office building in downtown Hong Kong sold for a record $5 billion.

In June a single parking space changed hands for $664,200, part of a boom in commercial and residential property prices fueled by an influx of money from wealthy mainland Chinese investors and developers.

The surging property market has become a political issue as costs in one of the world's most expensive cities continue to soar, forcing some small businesses to close due to sky-high rents while many residents cannot afford to buy or rent decent homes.

An official study last week showed nearly 20 percent of the city?s 7.35 million people live below the poverty line.