Communist Party-controlled media outlets have repeatedly called Hong Kong’s housing crisis the “root cause” of the protests, and pressured the government to seize idle land from property developers to build affordable housing. Carrie Lam, the city’s leader, announced measures in October to step up compulsory land purchases without specifying any locations.

An average flat in Hong Kong is 484 square feet—the smallest in the world and about half the average in New York or London. About a million families are in public housing, and another quarter million applicants are on waiting lists, accounting for roughly half of all households in one of the world’s most expensive cities.

Still, most who have joined the protests see Hong Kong’s housing woes as simply a symptom of the wider problem fueling the unrest: A lack of democracy. The demonstrations against China’s increased grip on the city have drawn support from a wide swathe of Hong Kong society, from office workers in the financial district to wage earners in poorer areas.

Even so, the spotlight is now on the four clans that have amassed empires, giving them fortunes worth more than $100 billion (HK$780 billion). The Kwok, Li, Lee and Cheng families control four of the city’s biggest property developers—“the Big Four”—and developed some of the most expensive buildings in the main business areas of Central and Tsim Sha Tsui, along Victoria Harbour.

All told, the tycoons’ companies have about HK$2.9 trillion in total assets-greater than the size of Hong Kong’s annual GDP.

The government has its eyes on their sprawling agricultural land banks. The four developers hold about a fifth of Hong Kong’s farmland, most of which is near the border with China. Chinese state media and others have accused the tycoons of using these holdings to manipulate the already scarce supply of available land, a main driver of Hong Kong’s sky-high property prices.

Alice Poon - author of “Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong” and former personal assistant to Kwok Tak-seng, the late Sun Hung Kai founder—called it a “vicious cycle” in which a few developers with vast land banks control supply, drive up prices nearby and feed government coffers through taxes in the form of land premiums. Those taxes account for about a quarter of the government’s total annual revenue, according to Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau. The government reinvests the proceeds from the premiums into big infrastructure projects, Poon said, further driving up land prices.

Developers have complained it can take years—or decades—to convert farmland for development. The government, meanwhile, has prioritized a $64 billion land reclamation plan that includes an artificial island roughly three times the size of New York’s Central Park.

China Pressure

China’s pressure on the tycoons may be having an impact: Some of the Big Four have recently drawn up charitable plans to help ease the housing shortage. Shortly after the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily published an editorial calling for land seizures, the Cheng family’s New World Development pledged 3 million square feet—or almost 20% of its farmland—for affordable housing.

The next day, the Lee family’s Henderson Land Development offered 1 million square feet of its farmland—less than 1% of what they own—if the government aims to resume the land for public housing. Separately, the company said it planned to lend 430,000 square feet of farmland to the Hong Kong government for 7 years for transitional housing units. The company declined to comment.

Li Ka-shing has offered HK$1 billion—rather than land—for small- and medium-sized businesses. CK Asset said that while developing agricultural land is a long and complicated process, Li Ka-shing has over the years donated more than HK$26 billion, about a tenth of his current net worth.

Kwok-controlled Sun Hung Kai, whose shopping malls have been targeted by some protesters, said in a statement it gave a total of 16,000 square feet for two separate initiatives over the past four years—a tiny fraction of its total holdings. Separately, the company said it expected “reasonable compensation” if the government seized its land for public housing.

Adam Kwok, one of the group’s third-generation heirs who recently attended a pro-Beijing rally, said the group plans to expand its charitable activities. “Not enough is being done in social housing,” he told Bloomberg last week at the launch of the group’s new Alva Hotel by Royal, as servers made the rounds with glasses of champagne.

Vast Farmland Reserves

Some developers loaned portions of their agriculture land banks for housing initiatives

New World’s donated farmland, by far the most as a proportion of its holdings, will be partly loaned to Light Be—a social housing organization the Chengs have supported for years that allows young families, single mothers and at-risk individuals referred by social workers to pay rents of about 20% to 40% of the market rate. Carson Ho, one of the beneficiaries, became self-sufficient enough after two years to start his own air-conditioning maintenance company.

It’s not yet clear if the social housing scheme is scalable, but Light Be founder Ricky Yu is optimistic. Yu, a former manager in Hong Kong for direct sales company Amway Corp., said he hopes it will create a channel between the social classes so that rich and poor can “coexist without a sense of resentment.” New World said in a statement the Light Be projects are intended to “inspire more people to generate creative approaches” to housing.

Still, many doubt that billionaire philanthropy alone can solve the city’s housing crisis, especially when coming from land barons. Prices have quadrupled over the past two decades, vastly outpacing median incomes.

Runaway Home Prices

Many Hong Kongers are shut out of the market

Brian Wong, a member of Liber Research Community, an independent think tank based in Hong Kong, labeled the land donations a “PR stunt” aimed at preempting seizures by the government. It’s on the administration to fix housing because tycoon social housing has too many conflicts of interest, he said.

Others say the tycoons are only giving up lands with the least potential for development, and that they may expect something in return for their charity. New World’s stock rallied 2% the day after it announced its social housing plan.

Regardless of whether their contributions make a dent in the city’s housing problem, polls show the Big Four are unlikely to quell the outrage fueling the protests, let alone anger over housing.

Hong Kongers largely blame policies that brought an influx of about 1 million mainland immigrants since the 1997 handover for the 5-year wait for public housing. Dissatisfaction with Hong Kong’s government is also at record highs, especially over human rights and the pace of democratic development.

David Webb, an activist investor who has lived in Hong Kong for almost three decades, said the tycoons would ultimately fare better in a harmonious democratic society rather than one with autocratic rule, detention without trial, curbs on the internet and an exodus of talent. And that means they should be pushing for meaningful elections rather than focusing on land donations.

“If anything, it kind of angers people that they feel the need to do this, to engage in this kind of gimmickry,” Webb said. “The root cause is lack of democratic accountability.”