Rebecca L.H. Chiu completed her bachelor degree at the University of New South Wales and the doctoral degree in human geography at the Australian National University. Since joining the University of Hong Kong in 1987, she has specialized in housing studies and housing education, and since 1997, further specialized in housing and urban sustainability issues and comparative housing policies. Currently she is Professor at the Department of Urban Planning and Design (formerly Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management), the Director of the Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning in the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Hong Kong, and Director of the Affordable Housing Research Network of the Faculty of Architecture. She was a Visiting Professor of the School of the Built Environment of the University of Ulster, and a Visiting Fellow of the Hughes Hall of the University of Cambridge. She is a chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, an Honorary Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Housing, and an Honourable Member of the Shopping Centre Management Institute.

Her current research interests are housing and urban sustainability issues in high-density Asian cities, especially China; social sustainability of gated communities; comparative housing policies in Asia; and housing policy transfer. She is the Program Director of the Master of Housing Management and the Bachelor of Housing Management. She presently supervises doctoral dissertations on housing and urban issues in China, South Korea, and Bangladesh.

She is the Founder Chairman of the Asia Pacific Network for Housing Research. She has been appointed to government committees and boards related to housing, planning and environmental issues in Hong Kong. Currently she is a member of the Country and Marine Parks Board and the Appeal Panels of Town Planning and Urban Renewal. She was appointed a Justice of the Peace by the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2006.

She has been consultant to international, regional and local organizations on housing matters.