Tycoon Lee Shau-kee gives away more land - this time for a planned hostel
Lee Shau-kee rejects claims his donations are designed to raise value of adjacent farmland
Property tycoon Lee Shau-kee put his hand into his deep pockets once again as he pledged to donate land for a youth hostel - just days after he handed over a 100,000 sq ft site to build the city's largest nursing home.
The project neighbours the land, currently used as a car park, donated on Monday to Pok Oi Hospital with the aim of housing 2,000 elderly people in need of long-term care.
The 84-year-old chairman of Henderson Land Development said he wanted to double the size of the planned nursing home, so that it could also house a work-skills training centre for women and kindergartens.
Lee is still in talks with the non-governmental Housing Society over a separate donation of land for building 1,000 small homes to sell at HK$1 million each. He initially intended to offer the flats only to young people, but that plan was rejected by the Housing Society due to policy constraints.
He also revealed a plan to donate another plot that could accommodate 6,000 homes, including 5,000 Home Ownership Scheme subsidised flats and 1,000 youth-hostel spaces. The location could be disclosed in two months, Lee said.
He dismissed as "groundless" claims that he made the donation for the nursing home purely to raise the value of adjacent farmland owned by Henderson.
"I'm old, so I'll do all that I can," he reportedly said.
A Henderson spokeswoman invited organisations interested in the hostel project to approach the company.
The Society for Community Organisation, a group for the underprivileged, said the remote location could be a problem. "But if rents are low enough, say about HK$1,000 a month, it could attract low-income youths," said Angela Lui Yi-shan of the group.
In February, the government said it plans to build 2,000 youth hostel units at sites in Sheung Wan and Tai Po by 2016.
That project is part of a pilot scheme for single people aged 18 to 30 whose income is less than 25 per cent of the average for their age group. The average was HK$15,000 a month in 2011.
