Focus

Real estate tycoons see their giving as good for business

By Xu Fan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-10 07:56

The 2010 China Charity List shows real estate enterprises account for about 16 percent of all the domestic businesses, while three donors on China's Top Ten Philanthropists list are tycoons from the real estate industry.

According to statistics in the latest Blue Book on Charity Donation Development in China, more than 72 percent of domestic real estate enterprises made donations and engaged in charitable activities.

Despite this, the real estate industry, which has produced the largest number of billionaire donors in the past five years, is finding it hard to counter the public perception that its success is founded on greed.

"If I rob you of 100 yuan and then return 10 yuan to you, can it be praised as generosity?" asked one netizen on the news portal 163.com following the news that among all the capital's businesses real estate enterprises were the most generous givers to charity.

According to the 2010 China's philanthropist list, released on March 29, Huang Rulun, chairman of the Beijing-based Jinyuan Hotel Group, was the country's top giver, donating about 988.5 million yuan to education and public welfare last year.

Lee Shau Kee, founder of Hong Kong-based Henderson Land Development Co Ltd, who donated 70.5 million yuan to medical care last year, was ninth on the list, one place higher than Xu Jiayin, chairman of Guangzhou-based Evergrande Real Estate Group, who donated nearly 65 million yuan for disaster relief and the poor.

But, their generosity has not convinced the public, many of whom still views the industry as "greedy and shameless". Many of the capital's residents, who hoped to purchase their own apartments, but were unable to do so because of the soaring house prices, lashed out at developers for "greedily chasing huge profits", according to surveys conducted by several real estate research websites.

"The profit created by domestic real estate enterprises is as much as five times their counterparts in foreign countries. They need to share the profits with other industries," said Cheng Enfu, a committee member with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

While some real estate tycoons admit that charitable donations are partly a public relations exercise, they insist that their motives are genuine.

Tian Han, president with Beijing-based Kinghand real estate group, which donated 7 million yuan to help single-parent families earlier this year, said: "We normally make an annual profit of about 100 million to 200 million yuan but we have insist on giving away 2 to 3 million yuan each year to charity. I believe an enterprise should show its interests on social obligation."

Wang Jianlin, president with Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co Ltd, said that though most developers donated to charity partly to improve their image, the public's perception of the industry is inaccurate.

"Actually, real estate enterprises have contributed a lot to the country's economy but they receive few plaudits. I hope all the developers can unite to improve the industry's reputation," said Wang.