Henderson tycoon Lee Shau-kee's donation of land for youth housing rejected
Government turns down Lee Shau-kee's offer of land to build flats for young people, suggesting developers should work with non-profit groups
The government has turned down property tycoon Lee Shau-kee's offer to donate land for homes and urged landowners with similar plans to work with non-profit organisations such as the Housing Society instead.
The announcement was made yesterday by Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po, five months after Lee's company, Henderson Land Development, first said it was in talks with the government about the proposal, which involved farmland in Yuen Long and Fanling.
Lee wanted to build 300 sq ft flats for sale to young people at HK$1 million each - enough to cover costs, provided the government waived its usual land conversion premium. Following Lee's offer, Henry Cheng Kar-shun, chairman of New World Development, said his group was also willing to donate land.
Lawmakers were speculating last night whether the government rejected Lee's offer to avoid being accused of colluding with the developers.
A government source had disclosed last month that Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying was in a dilemma over Lee's proposal.
Chan said: "Different donors have different ideals and impose different conditions on their proposals to donate land.