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Records show that John Lee, likely to be the only candidate running for the Chief Executive this year, once made more than eight million HKD by purchasing and then selling two properties in the 1990s. Another thousand-square-foot flat in Ho Man Tin that he and his wife purchased in 1997 is the only property that currently remains in his portfolio.
Like many other public servants in his generation, Lee benefited from the British colonial government’s Housing Loan Scheme when he purchased his first house. The loan was large enough to cover the down payment for the property.
John Lee, born in 1957, was a form seven graduate of the prestigious Wah Yan College Kowloon in 1977. A government spokesman said last year that Lee turned down an offer to study in HKU’s Faculty of Engineering for family reasons and, instead, joined the Royal Hong Kong Police as a probationary inspector in the year he graduated. His eldest son was born around that time.
Records show that Lee’s first property, a house at the Marina Cove residential complex in Sai Kung, was purchased under his own name in 1990. The 1,315 square-foot house came with a rooftop, garden and car park, and was priced at 2.61 million HKD at the time.
According to Land Registry documents, the property was first charged to Security Pacific Asian Bank Limited, which granted up to 90% of the property value. Having had been on the police force for 13 years at that time, Lee was eligible for a loan, through the government’s Housing Loan Scheme, of an additional 522,000 HKD – 20% of the property’s value. In other words, Lee was able to obtain a ‘110% loan’ in total without having to make a down payment. This was because the Housing Loan Scheme calculations include stamp duty and legal fees as part of the property’s value.
Amid the housing market surge in the 1990s, Lee purchased another first-hand property at Laguna City in May 1995 with his wife under a joint tenancy. The 752-square-foot flat was priced at 5.19 million HKD. Lee later refinanced and further mortgaged the property in July 1996 and April 1997 respectively.
During Hong Kong’s handover in July 1997, Lee was promoted to chief superintendent. About half a year before that, he sold his house in Marina Cove for 9 million HKD, making a nominal profit of 6.39 million HKD – that is, a profit of 2.4 times of the house’s initial purchase price – in six years. A month later, he and his wife purchased another first-hand flat in Ho Man Tin’s King’s Park Villa, priced at 12.46 million HKD, with a saleable area of 1,227 square feet. In May of 1997, they sold the flat in Laguna City for 7.25 million HKD, incurring a profit of 2.06 million HKD.
Though Lee invested the profits from the two property sales into the King’s Park Villa flat, data collected by Centaline Property show that property prices began to fall in 1998. A number of flats in King’s Park Villa were sold in 1998 to 2004 at just half of their first-hand purchase prices in 1997. The valuation of Lee’s property was likely to have been affected as well. If the remaining balance on his mortgage loan was more than 50% of the purchase price, the property may have been in negative equity at that time.
While Lee’s property portfolio underperformed, Lee continued to make leaps and bounds in his career. In 2002, he was seconded to the Security Bureau to work on computer crime-related legislation. In 2003, he was sent to the Royal College of Defence Studies in the UK for training, and was promoted to assistant commissioner later that same year to act as the regional commander of Kowloon West. Lee discharged all his mortgages in 2004 and holds only the flat in Ho Man Tin today. The current value of that flat is estimated to be 23.56 million HKD.
Lee reached his highest rank in the police force as Deputy Commissioner (Management) in 2010, leaving the police force to become the Under Secretary for Security in 2012, then the Secretary for Security in 2017, and eventually, the Chief Secretary for Administration last year. Should Lee become the next Chief Executive, he will be the first with experience in the police force.
