The chairman of Henderson Land Development, 86-year-old Lee Shau-kee, has generously donated a 63,000 sqf plot in Yuen Long to develop Hong Kong’s largest youth hostel amid the city’s eternal housing problems.
Gifted to the Po Leung Kuk charity, and hoping to house roughly 1,600 people in 1,250 units, the planned 25-storey hostel is expected to be completed by 2018.
The units are to be leased at 50 percent of the market rate to those aged 18-30 in an attempt to provide affordable accommodation for Hong Kong’s young workforce.
This is not Lee’s first charitable action, having already donated an 100,000 sqf site in Tuen Mun for an elderly nursing home back in Nov. 2013.
And in a newly created charity foundation with Yeung Kwok-keung, chairman of Country Garden Holdings (a property developer on the mainland), Lee also plans to build 10,000 flats on the mainland to support more of Hong Kong’s elderly.
These will be a maximum of two hours from the city, with Hongkongers receiving a bangin’ deal of 40 percent off. Yeah, well, you’d want some monetary compensation for being relocated there, right?
Lee ALSO hopes to create 5,000 subsidised flats for mid to low-earning Hongkongers after redeveloping a 50-year-old housing estate in Shek Kip Mei.
According to the SCMP, he hopes to “improve the stability in society” by solving the “problem of polarisation between the poor and the rich”.
This man is either a saint or making up for a lot of bad shit. Let’s hope it’s the former.
Photo: via LinkedIn
Reader Interactions