Hong Kong developers offering $1.4m apartment to residents vaccinated against COVID-19

Hong Kong developers are offering a $1.4 million apartment as a reward to residents who get vaccinated against COVID. The city state has been battling vaccine hesitancy with only 2.1 million of its 7.5 million population inoculated as of now. With expiry dates of unused vaccine jabs nearing, authorities in Hong Kong are now using carrots and stick to get residents to the vaccination centres. 

449 square foot apartment

Joining the ongoing efforts, Sino Group’s philanthropic arm Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and Chinese Estates Holdings Ltd. are jointly offering a brand new apartment in their Grand Centra Project. For this purpose, the companies have started a lucky draw and all Hong Kongers who’ve received two doses of the vaccine are eligible to participate in the draw. The opulent, 449 square-foot apartment is located in the Southernmost part of Hong Kong- Kwun Tong district.

Hong Kong residents holding a valid Hong Kong Permanent Identity Card (‘Permanent Resident’) will be eligible to enter the lucky draw for the grand prize award - a one-bedroom residential apartment at Grand Central in Hong Kong, with a floor area of approximately 449 square feet and a value of approximately HK$10,800,000, Sino Group said in a press release. 

While Hong Kong has enough vaccine shots-Pfizer/BioNTech and Sinovac- to successfully innoculate all of its population, vaccine scepticism has pulled the drive a step back. To tackle vaccine scepticism and make Hong Kong totally immunised against COVID, the Carrie Lam led government has been providing several incentives such as reopening bars and shortening quarantines in an attempt to encourage citizens to get inoculated. 

Last week, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam defended Hong Kong as an attractive place for businesses, after a recent survey found foreigners were considering leaving the longtime Asian business hub. "We have 9,000 mainland and overseas companies based in Hong Kong, including many of them which are using Hong Kong as a regional headquarters and regional offices,” she told reproters. “We have not seen any significant outflow of capital, the securities markets are doing very well, the banking sector is very stable and generally, life goes on," she further said. 

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