Zheng Zhigang, Executive Vice President of New World Development, suddenly announced at the performance conference that he would donate 3 million farmland to the public to build public housing, and will cooperate with social enterprises to develop social housing
It is the Government’s consideration that it should cite the Lands Resumption Ordinance to recover the farmland in their hands from real estate developers for the purposes required for social development. The announcement of the New World has caused much discussion in the community.
Some opinion leaders with conspiracy theories questioned that the New World is doing this because it wants society to think that it can solve the problem of insufficient land by letting real estate developers donate land
Once the public has such misunderstanding, it will reduce the pressure on the government. It is not necessary for the government to immediately withdraw the farmland from their hands to the real estate developers.
This accusation of the New World donation is for private benefit. It is purely a guess, and there is no substantive evidence to base it. Regardless of whether the New World donations have ulterior motives, as long as this practice is beneficial to society, society should welcome and encourage it. If our society develops a habit of good intentions with ulterior motives, there will be fewer and fewer people willing to donate to society. This is not good for our society.
The reality is that 3 million farmland is not a small number, it accounts for nearly one-fifth of the new world farmland reserves
If this batch of agricultural land is converted from an area to an amount, it is even more valuable. Even if the potential development value of these lands is not taken into account, the compensation value of the government at the time of receiving agricultural land is only HK$1,124, which is also worth 3.342 billion yuan; equivalent to one-third of the basic profit of New World Development in 2018. Not everyone will be happy to give one-third of the annual income to the society once.
Even with other developers of the same rank, the donations made by New World this time are relatively large. However, critics believe that it is precisely because of the good value of the land, it is even more convincing that real estate developers who are willing to give up such great interests must not take pictures. However, although the land of 3 million baht is not too small, it has been used to solve the problem of insufficient land supply in Hong Kong. It is simply a lot of money and can’t help much. I hope that after the government gets the land, it will be a bit whimsical to give up and collect land from developers.
According to previous estimates by the Land Select Committee, in the future (to 2046), Hong Kong needs at least 4,600 hectares of land supply. If it is converted into hectares, it will only be 27.88 hectares, which is only 0.6% of the total demand. Therefore, it is simply not enough for the government to change its policy.
Moreover, based on the farmland owned by the hand, the New World has far less ownership than Henderson and Sun Hung Kai. If the government fully recovers the farmland in the hands of developers, the loss of the new world cannot match the Henderson and Sun Hung Kai. If the government only selectively recovers some of the farmland land, the chances of selecting Henderson and Sun Hung Kai will be greater than the new world. . Under this circumstance, if the New World only focuses on self-interest, there is no need to be the first real estate company to make so many donations to solve difficulties for its competitors.
Therefore, I am inclined to believe that the new generation of principals in the new world are interested in taking on more social responsibilities, rather than just considering the benefits of shareholders. In fact, the two are not necessarily opposite. According to Adam. According to Smith, the interests of real estate developers are most consistent with the overall interests of society. Only when the society as a whole is thriving will the investment of real estate developers have a good return; if there is any mistake in the society, even if it only appears in some places, the price of real estate will be dragged down. Therefore, real estate developers are willing to take on more social responsibilities, both for people and for themselves, without ulterior motives.