Govt May Ask Private Sector To Build Elderly Homes

The Labour and Welfare Secretary, Law Chi-kwong, said on Saturday that the government will consider asking more private developers to build elderly homes on their housing projects to ease the acute shortage of care home places.

He made the comment after a 16,000 square metre plot in Kai Tak was sold last week to Sun Hung Kai Properties with the requirement for it to build a residential elderly home and a day care centre on the site.

Law dismissed concerns that developers may benefit from such arrangements, saying the facilities will be handed back to the government and would be run by NGOs.

He added that it would also be faster than building care homes in public projects, which tended to take eight years or even longer to complete.

He said private projects tended to take as little as five years to build.