'In common with a lot of my friends, we were not in the mood to go shopping, to buy a new suit or to buy a new car. But people in Hong Kong have short memories. In the past two months, property prices have gone back up, so a lot of us are in the buying mood again.

'Between March and September, there was a change of mood in Hong Kong. A lot of people are involved in property and in the stock market. And, on both counts, especially in property, things have gone to an all-time high. The stock market has gone back to [above] 21,000 points and a lot of people are better off.'

The economic downturn of the past year has had a profound effect on spending habits at every level of society. It isn't only those forced by circumstances to adjust their spending who have done so. Those whose wealth insulates them against the shocks of the downturn also changed their habits.

In Tien's case, with his private company invested heavily in luxury property and office rentals, the effects of the economic slump were far less pronounced than in other businesses forced to shed jobs and cut costs.

'At the beginning of this year, when the stock market went to 11,000, the property market was not that bad,' he says. 'In a sense, I could say my cash flow was actually better. Rentals came down and vacancies went up a bit but my interest payments really tumbled.

'The majority of our investments are in luxury apartments and office buildings. Luxury apartments have gone through the roof - they are at an all-time high. So my net worth now is probably higher than it was last year.'

All this meant was that when sentiment in Hong Kong became more positive, Tien was able to view the Sunseeker as an opportunity rather than an extravagance - particularly as the mood in Britain, where he bought it, was decidedly downbeat compared with Hong Kong.

'Because things are in such bad shape they gave us a very big discount,' he says. 'I now have three grandchildren so I need a bigger boat - I am not buying one for no reason. But of course if I didn't have the money, and I wasn't in the right mood, then even if I had a few more grandchildren I probably wouldn't have bought it.'

Another of Hong Kong's best-known faces in the party and business circuit, Allan Zeman, says that he too adjusted his spending habits in the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers crash last year. 'When the financial crisis first hit, for most people, no matter who they were, there were two days when the world just kind of shut down,' he says. 'It was a very, very scary time.

'Everybody was worried about which bank was sound and which bank was not sound. Suddenly, banks you had trusted all your life and grew up with, you didn't know if they were solvent or insolvent, what their outstanding loans were and what their balance sheets were. It was just frightening for many people.

'People in my position were taking money out of the banks or spreading the risk over different banks. Rumours were flying around everywhere. It was very scary because it was like the world was coming to an end.'

After the initial panic subsided and the financial situation began to stabilise, there were signs of a long-term change in people's attitudes to spending, Zeman says, adding it was unrelated to their actual spending power.

'It was suddenly unfashionable to be seen buying a fancy car,' he says. 'All wealthy people were trying to be low key. It went from extravagance to austerity. You totally changed your habits.

'Before, for instance, if you went out to a restaurant, you might order the most expensive wine or champagne. Now, you suddenly didn't want to be seen drinking that kind of thing when people were suffering. There was a backlash and you wanted to be low key.

'I am not an extravagant spender but I buy clothes. I continued to, but in the past I would never really look at the price. I would go to Armani and never look at the tag. Now, I would look at the ticket. It wasn't that I couldn't afford it, but it was a change of character, a change in mindset.

'When it came to a label or a brand, before you would just buy it. Now you would think twice and ask 'do I really need it? Do I really want it'? High-end retailers saw their business drop off because of it, so I assume there was a similar feeling for everyone in my position.'

As the shock waves of the recession were felt, the change in spending habits was felt across the traditional refuges for the money of the wealthy.

'There was a fairly sharp contraction in the market,' says Jonathan Stone, Christie's international business director for Asian Art. But as markets gradually stabilised, the downturn provided a 'great opportunity' for people to acquire top-quality works at low prices.

'People realised this was an opportunity to buy something that may not come on the market again,' Stone says.

Just one year after the global financial meltdown began, there has been a surprisingly sharp rebound in the fortunes of the art market. Stone says auctions were providing a way for the wealthy to invest without having to make a public display of their wealth.

'Auctions are always a less ostentatious way of buying,' he says. 'If you don't want to be seen sitting in the room you can buy through an agent, over the phone or by internet if this is a concern for buyers.'

He adds: 'In recent auctions, 60 per cent of buyers in our New York sales and in our fine wine auctions have been from the Asia region. The wine market in particular has grown very fast.

'I think China will lead the way out of the downturn. Chinese buying is very strong at the moment. There is a huge hunger for great art, as well as for wine and property. This will be one of the main drivers of the sales this season.'

Another sign that the wealthy are starting to spend again came with the reaction to the launch of the HK$4.3 million Rolls-Royce Ghost in Hong Kong. Hal Serudin, corporate communications manager for Rolls-Royce MotorCars Asia-Pacific, says: 'We saw some 20 orders for the new car right after its debut in Hong Kong in September. We expect to see the first of the cars arriving in Hong Kong by early next year.'

Serudin concedes there has been a softening of sales in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, but says: 'Our experience has been that our customers have not lost the capacity to purchase. They have just deferred purchases because of the current climate.'

Francesca McDonagh, head of personal financial services at HSBC Hong Kong, says spending habits have changed subtly over the past year among Premier Credit Card and Platinum Card holders. 'Consumers have become keener to maximise the discounts and promotional offers when they use their credit cards,' she says.

'The financial crisis did hit credit card spending even among the affluent segment. However, we saw no major changes to lifestyle and card usage. Dining and shopping are still the top areas of spending.

'What we see happening is that affluent cardholders have become more receptive to discounts and offers provided by merchants. They have also become choosier in terms of cards they will use depending on what rewards and features they offer.'

McDonagh says credit card spending among wealthier customers has picked up in recent months, reflecting growing consumer confidence and positive sentiment, but they are likely to remain prudent in the months ahead.

Which means no immediate return to the 'spend, spend, spend' culture that preceded the crash.

Zeman links the change in attitudes to spending to warier attitudes towards the financial world in general. 'Before, it was like the Wild West,' he said. 'Money had no value and people were paying any kind of price for paintings and other things. You name it - it had all gone through the roof.

'Suddenly, everybody came back to earth. It was a good lesson for all because it brought some stability to the world. Everyone had a different outlook on life, realising total deregulation does not work after we were brought up in the Republican and Bush era thinking, 'why do we need regulation? The free market is the way to go'.

'It was a total change in the character where we realised we do need regulations and man does need to have laws. The students don't run the dorm and the patients don't run the asylum. There needs to be some form of law that you guide yourself with and live within and it makes for a much stronger world.'

Although the worst of the recession appears to be over, the days of excess that preceded it will not be back any time soon, Zeman believes. 'I don't think it will go back to the way it was before - not for a long time,' he says. 'From what I have read of it, it was similar to the 1920s, before the Great Depression.

'People just spent money and had a great time. That was why they called it the Roaring 20s. And they paid for it in the 30s.

'It will be a long time before it is back to where it was before. But you can never say never. These periods go and a new crowd of youngsters - a new crowd of yuppies - come up and they haven't experienced this.'

As he prepares to take his new yacht to the water, Tien has a sunny forecast to offer for the pace of Hong Kong's recovery. 'Compared to people in Europe and the States, our people are a lot better off. That is probably because of the mainland factor.

'The reason property prices are going through the roof is because of mainland investors. These days they are coming here not to buy suits and cosmetics but to buy apartments. In London, property prices are going down because most Russians and Saudis are not doing that well. Hong Kong is doing well simply because of the mainland economy.'

An upbeat James Tien sees buying a new luxury yacht as an opportunity rather than an extravagance. He expects Hong Kong to recover quickly.