Lee Shau-Kee buys land and is bullish

Billionaire Lee Shau-kee said he has sold as
much as 30 percent of his Hong Kong stock investments and is buying
land, betting that the city's efforts to cool home prices won't work.
Lee's Henderson Land Development Co. and partner New World
Development Co. will pay HK$9.6 billion ($1.24 billion) for a building
site, he said at a press briefing in Hong Kong yesterday. Henderson is
also spending more than HK$10 billion buying old buildings for
redevelopment.
Hong Kong luxury home prices rose 28 percent in the first nine
months of this year, according to Colliers International, while the
benchmark Hang Seng Index almost doubled. The city's government is
trying to cool the increase by tightening downpayment requirements for
luxury homes and suspending mortgage insurance for rental property. On
Oct. 14, city Chief Executive Donald Tsang expressed concern that a
property bubble may be forming.
"The new mortgage measures are not going to have much impact on
luxury home prices," said Lee, 81. "Most of those buyers are tycoons and
don't need to take up mortgages to buy." The increase in luxury prices
hasn't affected the mid- segment market, he said. An apartment larger
than 1,000 square feet (93 square meters) is categorized as luxury under
local industry standards.