• Two units in a Hong Kong luxury housing development are the most expensive in Asia, selling for a combined $149 million.
• Rising prices and mega-million dollar apartments mean middle-class families have to compete for subsidized housing in one of the world's most expensive cities.
• Less than a tenth of Hong Kong's land area is zoned for housing.

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Properties in Hong Kong are among the priciest in the world , and a pair of fancy apartments in the city have now been crowned the most expensive in Asia.

Two units in a luxury housing development at The Peak sold this month for a combined HK$1.1.6 billion ($149 million) to a single buyer, South China Morning Post reported .

An unidentified buyer paid $76.8 million for a 4,579 square-foot apartment and about $71.7 million for a 4,242 square foot apartment, according to Wheelock Properties which oversees sales at the property.

The second property, at HK$132,000 per square feet, is Asia's most expensive residence in terms of cost per square-foot.

Hong Kong is a city of stark contrasts. According to UBS , it is the world's most-expensive city for apartments but, at the same time, the average living space is just 150 square-feet per person.

The average skilled worker would need to earn a salary for 20 years in order to afford a 650 square-foot apartment in the city center.

Wealth inequality: The middle-class struggle

On the same day that news about Asia's most-expensive apartment came out, Hong Kong authorities said they received applications from 88,000 families vying for 620 available subsidized homes, a record high since sales of subsidized housing resumed in 2013.

The apartments, which are sold for 30% below market value, were developed by not-for-profit public housing provider Housing Society .

Subsidized housing programs were paused in 2002 to boost property prices, which have continuously spiked in recent months . According to the South China Morning Post , Housing Society chairman Marco Wu Moon-hoi said the imbalance between property supply and demand in Hong Kong is "serious" and "very worrying."

Hong Kong is the second-wealthiest city in the world, with fiscal reserves of more than HK$900 billion , but less than one-tenth of its land area is zoned for housing .

According to the Post, Wu said that The Housing Society, Hong Kong's second-largest non-profit public housing provider, has "the resources and capacity" to create more subsidized units, but is not able to do so without more land allocations.