Hong Kong leases prime property for $13 a year

Hong Kong telecoms giant PCCW has been renting prime publicly-owned real estate to house a staff recreation club for just $13 a year, a report said Saturday, amid rising public anger over soaring property prices. The South China Morning Post said the firm - whose billionaire chairman Richard Li is the son of the city's richest man, Li Ka-shing - has paid HK$100 ($13) annually over the last three decades for the site in Hong Kong's busy Causeway Bay shopping district.
The club, open only to PCCW staff, has a mini-soccer pitch, a gym, restaurant, lounge and a barbecue site, the report said. The generous leasing agreement dates back to 1981 when Hong Kong was still a British colony and PCCW was known as Cable and Wireless, the Post said, adding that government plans to redevelop the land had never been started. A PCCW spokesman could not be immediately reached Saturday. Hong Kong's government has pledged to tame property costs with a series of land auctions, but three residential property sales last week fetched a total of HK$5.73 billion ($737 million), at the top end of estimates.