Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, at his super mansion site at 22 Bega Road on the Peak in Hong Kong.
Position News found that the Hong Kong government’s Lands Department approved the offshore company holding the mansion last year to purchase the adjacent government land for a private road at a premium of $11.72 million, but the department has not disclosed it to the public, saying that it was only announced when it was uncovered. A civil society group questioned the authorities to sell government land (government land) to wealthy businessmen involving public interest, questioned why the Lands Department did not disclose, so that the public know and monitor.
Jack Ma bought the super mansion at 22 Baikal Road on the Peak of Hong Kong in 2015 for a “sky-high” price of HK$1.5 billion, and is carrying out redevelopment work. According to The Stand News, Land Registry records show that in September 2020, the Lands Department approved the private lot’s owner, the offshore company Alatini Group Limited, to purchase the adjacent 58.6 square meters (630.5 square feet) of government land at a premium of $11.72 million. According to the report, the Lands Department approved the owner to incorporate the government land into its private lot by way of an extension, which can be built into a private road. However, the Department of October 21, 2020 after the completion of the relevant registration, has not been announced to the public.
Lawyer Leung Wing-kong explained that the owner could take exclusive possession of the land after buying the government land and make larger-scale repairs. When a reporter from The Stand visited the site of the mansion on February 9, he found that the government land had been hoarded and incorporated into the site, while the floor tiles of the original access road had been removed and paved with concrete.
In response to a query from The Stand News, the Lands Department revealed that it had received an application from the owner of the private lot in December 2018 to include the adjoining government land as an additional part of his lot, adding that the application had been processed in accordance with the procedures and the amount of the premium was assessed at full market value. However, the Department admitted that it did not publish similar cases on its website.
However, after an inquiry by The Stand, the department announced on its website in the evening of February 26 that there were four cases of “additional land grant” from 2018 to 2020. In addition to Jack Ma’s super mansion, there are also applications from Hongkong Electric and Cheung Kong, SHKP and Baptist University, with premiums ranging from $1,000 to $650 million.
The public needs to know, otherwise it is impossible to monitor whether the amount of land premium is reasonable, whether there is a cheap sale of government land, and it is impossible to raise objections. He questioned the Lands Department not to announce the additional land granted to Jack Ma’s mansion, the practice lacks justification, should be announced across the board to be right.
He also criticized the Lands Department for announcing the case only after media inquiries, the situation is not satisfactory, but also revealed that the original government can “grant” additional government land but never announced, again highlighting the serious lack of transparency of land information, making it difficult for the public to judge whether the land has been put to good use.
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