Neng Yan College’s Desperate Move: Sells 2 Campuses for RMB 1.3 Billion to Stay Afloat

▲ Hong Kong Neng Yan College has offered NT$1.3 billion for sale of two school buildings located on Lai Chi Kok Road and Medical Kuk Street in Sham Shui Po. (Photo by Liang Weirong)

The two campus buildings of Hong Kong Neng Yan College, a self-financing institution, are being put up for sale for NT$1.3 billion and are planned to be sold and leased back to 2027. The Buddhist Sangha Association, which founded the school, explained that it was selling the property due to “huge financial pressure” and would lease it back to run the school, promising to continue to provide education to all students this school year.

Neng Yan College was formerly known as “Neng Yan College” founded in 1969 and was funded and operated by the Hong Kong Buddhist Sangha Association. In 2014, it was approved to be upgraded to “Hong Kong Neng Yan College”. After checking the current two buildings of the school, we found that they were purchased between 1970 and 1972. They are located at 176-178 Medical Kuk Street, Sham Shui Po, and 325-329 Lai Chi Kok Road. The former is also a publicly listed meeting place of the Buddhist Sangha Association. The address was purchased for more than 600,000 yuan that year.

Group organization: continue to provide education for this academic year

Recently, a real estate advertisement circulated on the Internet, claiming that the two whole-building school buildings mentioned above were “for sale” by a charity group that has owned the property for more than 50 years. The total area of the leased area is about 30,000 square feet. The asking price is 1.3 billion yuan, and the price per square foot is as low as 4,234 yuan. ; It also means that the relevant properties can be sold and leased back to August 2027, which can bring a return rate of 5.5%, and it is indicated that the relevant sales prices and rents are negotiable. This newspaper inquired with the school and received a written reply from the Buddhist Sangha Association, confirming that the association was putting the relevant properties up for sale.

The association explained that in recent years, the college’s financial operations have relied solely on the support of the association, which has put the association under “huge financial pressure.” Therefore, the association has adopted a number of measures to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, and has been actively looking for good people and partners to provide financial support to the college. , “However, in the current economic and economic environment, no relevant specific plans have been implemented yet.”

The association continued that in order to comply with relevant laws and after balancing the rights and interests of various stakeholders, it decided to try to sell its properties to support the normal operation of the college. The association reiterated that if the property is successfully sold, it will require the new buyer to lease the relevant property to the college as a school site.

Education Bureau: No notice of proposed suspension has been received

When asked whether it intends to close the college, the association said that even though it faced the difficulty of being upgraded to a “university” in the past, and subsequently experienced factors that hindered development such as social unrest and the new crown epidemic, the association has never considered giving up running the school and promised to continue to provide Quality education is provided to all students of the college this academic year. The association described the decision to sell the property as “a demonstration of the association’s full confidence in the future of the college, as well as the association’s firm commitment and support to its teachers, students and all stakeholders.” The sale of the property has just begun. No progress has been made.

The Education Bureau responded that it had not received any notice of the planned closure of Neng Yan College. It stated that the college was a post-secondary college registered in accordance with the Post-secondary Colleges Ordinance (Chapter 320) and operated on a self-financing basis. The Bureau from time to time communicated with itself. To communicate with self-financing institutions on their future development, including helping to promote strategic coordination among institutions and promoting the healthy and sustainable development of the self-financing sector.

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