Legislator Paul Tse asks Govt today about the HK Club's Central site, implying some sort of sweetheart deal, and gets a rather uninformative answer, so let's help him out... info.gov.hk/gia/general/20…
The Club purchased the 999-year lease (the normal duration then) on Marine Lot 274, in a Public Auction at 3pm on 20-Feb-1894, with a reserve price of HK$52,800... 
It sold for $52,825. By comparison, in Nov-1894 Governor Sir William Robinson estimated that total Govt revenue for 1894 would be $2,186,506 (Hansard, 28-Nov-1894) . So the land premium on this prime site was about 2.42% of Govt revenue for the year...legco.gov.hk/1894-95/h94112…
The HK Govt's estimated revenue in 2020-21 is HK$543.5bn - so 2.42% of that would be HK$13.2bn. The HK Govt probably now occupies a larger share of GDP than it did in 1894, but still, the Club paid for its land fair and square, and had the good fortune to hold onto it...
With a site area of 17,600 sf and a plot ratio of 15, the land can hold 264,000 gsf of floor area. In 2017, Henderson Land paid HK$50,064/gsf for the nearby Murray Rd site. That would make the Club's land worth (hey presto): HK$13.2bn... info.gov.hk/gia/general/20…
So if the Club were ever demutualised and its assets sold or distributed (as the RAC did in London), then the ~1500 Members would be in line for a windfall of about HK$8.8m each...
Finally, Govt refuses to say whether the Club pays tax, even though, as a company limited by guarantee, its accounts are available at the registry for a fee; Mr Tse could have obtained them first. The answer: of course it does. It paid HK$15.94m for 2020.
Full disclosure: I am a Member.
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