Fact of the Day: Someone owns 15,000 Properties

Who owns 15,000 properties in Hong Kong? Inquiring minds want to know

The Hong Kong government continues to work on its budget that will be revealed next month, and Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor unveiled a fact that left us dumbfounded.

When the government was doing research on Hong Kong's biggest landowners and cutting government rate rebates on properties, she told the Legislative Council today the biggest landlord had a staggering 15,000 properties.

Fifteen thousands properties. Any guesses as to who that is? And the person in second place -- how many properties does this he or she own?

Carrie Lam revealed the shocking number today in Legco

Is Lam shocked that someone can own that many? Or does she think this is normal?

We personally find it jaw-dropping.

This fact clearly illustrates how intense the concentration of wealth is owned by Hong Kong's 1 percent.

No wonder the city's Gini co-efficient was at 0.539 in 2017, which compares to the United States at 0.411 and Singapore at 0.4579. The Gini Index measures how evenly income is distributed on a scale of zero to one, with zero representing perfect equality, and one being perfect inequality.

What is Lam going to do about this new fact we have learned today? Will she sympathize for ordinary citizens who are barely scraping by to get a roof over their heads, or she is grateful this landlord is letting the tenants benefit from his/her tax breaks, which Lam hinted at today.

Nevertheless we're still shocked by the astonishing number of properties one person owns. How many more landlords are in Hong Kong who own over 10,000 units? Even a few thousand is a gob-smacking amount.

Lam doesn't seem to think this is a problem...