Yen Dack Land Investment (仁德置業)
By York Lo

Article about Yen Dack Land in 1962 with sketch of Yen Dack Building (WKYP, 1962-9-19)
Yen Dack Land Investment is one of the lesser known developers which has developed many buildings in
Hong Kong with the character “Yen” in its names since the 1960s.

Left: wedding picture of Chan Kwong-dew and Gwendolyn Ho at the St Margaret Church in Happy Valley
in 1965 (WKYP, 1965-5-12); Right: Chan Kwong-dew and Seaker Chan on a 19 th century fire engine in
Disneyland in Anaheim, California in 1965 during their visit to the US at the invitation of the State
Department to research neighborhood associations. Seaker was on the left while Kwong-dew and his
new wife Gwen and mother in law Mrs. Alfred Ho were on the right (WKYP, 1965-7-8)
Incorporated in 1960, Yen Dack operated out of 57 Wing Lok Street in Sheung Wan in the 1960s and its
founder and chairman of Yen Dack was Chan Kwong-dew (陳廣就), a native of Kaiping in Guangdong
province who was the eldest son of Chan Yu (陳宇), a Chinese community leader in Canada. Aside from

Yen Dack, Chan also operated Kar Wa & Co (嘉華置業) out of the same office address and a Chan Yee-
yen associated with Hop Fung Investment Co Ltd. (合豐置業, renamed Hop Fung Construction (合豐建
築) in 1973) was also attached to the same address who might be affiliated with Yen Dack based on the
spelling of his name. (HK Government Gazette, 1969). Chan Kwong-dew’s wedding notice in 1965 also
listed him as the owner of the popular Honolulu Coffee Shop (檀島冰室 now known as檀島咖啡) in HK
and Kowloon. The chain is currently owned by the family of Yeung Jin-hei (楊展熙, 1933-2013) who
attribute Yeung as the founder but that does not make sense as he would have been only 7 years old
when the chain was founded in 1940.
In 1965, Chan Kwong-dew married Gwendolyn Ho (何嫣), a graduate of HKU and University of
Edinburgh who was working for the Social Welfare department at the time. Ho is the daughter of Alfred
S.U. Ho (何少庵), the longtime English secretary of Wah Kiu Yat Po and treasurer of the Newspaper
Society of HK and sister of architect Edward Ho Sing-tin SBS OBE JP (何承天), who had served on the
Legislative Council from 1991 to 2000 representing the architectural, surveying and planning
constituency. (WKYP, 1965-5-12) This was not Chan’s first marriage as other articles indicate that he had
children studying in Canada even back in the 1950s. (WKYP, 1958-8-21)
Outside of business, Chan was very active in community affairs in the 1950s to 1970s, having served as
vice chairman of the North Point Kaifong Welfare Association and chairman of the Hoi Ping Chamber of
Commerce and was elected chairman of the Sze Yup Industrial & Commercial Society in 1978.
Some of Yen Dack’s earliest projects were Hoi Kwok (海角唐樓) in Tai Kok Tsui, Yen On Building (仁安大
樓) at 28-30 Ma Tau Chung Road and Yen Wo Building (仁和大樓) at 41-43 Tam Kung Road in To Kwa
Wan. In 1962, Yen Dack developed its namesake 20-story Yen Dack Building (仁德大廈) at 93-113 Chun
Yeung Street in North Point and flats were selling for $30000-45000 each. (FEER)

Two ads of Yen Dack in the early 1970s – Left: article and sketch of Yen Lok Building in 1971 (WKYP,
1971-5-6); Right: sketch of Yen Ning Building in 1970 (WKYP, 1970-4-16)
In 1970, Yen Dack developed the 24-story Yen Ning Building (仁寧大廈) at 100-102 Ting On Street in
Kwun Tong, with flats selling for $30000-80000 each and available for 12-year mortgage provided by HK

Buildings & Loans. This was followed by Yen Lok Building (仁樂大廈) at 4-12 Lin Shing Road in Chai Wan
in 1971 which had flat starting at $27000 each (or $60 per square feet). In 1978, Yen Dack developed
Yen Yee Mansion (仁儀苑) at 29-33 Soares Avenue in Ho Man Tin.

Left: article and sketch of Yen Che Building in 1982 (WKYP, 1982-8-11); Right: Chan Kwong-dew
addressing the staff and teachers of the Hoi Ping Chamber of Commerce Secondary School as supervisor
of the school in 1981 (WKYP, 1981-9-16)
By the 1980s, Yen Dack had moved its offices to the HK Commercial Bank Building at 120-126 Des Voeux
Road Central. In 1982, the firm developed the 10-story Yen Che Building (仁智大廈) at 27-31 Kowloon
City Road in To Kwa Wan with shops on the first two floors.
In 1984, Yen Dack developed the 20-story Yen Men Building (仁文大廈) at 98-108 Jaffe Road in
Wanchai, with four flats ranging from 344-382 sq ft in size on each floor and starting at HK$250,000 per
flat. (WKYP, 1984-7-18). In 1986, the firm developed Yen Oi Garden (仁愛苑) at 9-15 Po Tak Street in the
Mid-Levels with 517 sq ft flat selling fo $400,000 ($800 per sq ft, which was cheaper than the average
$1200-1300 in the Mid-Levels at the time) and available for mortgage with 20% down and monthly
payments of $2000. (WKYP, 1986-1-22)
In addition to the buildings mentioned above, there are at least a dozen buildings with “Yen” (rather
unique spelling as it is usually spelled “Yan”) in its names in HK which were likely developed by Yen Dack
(to be verified) including Yen Yuen Building (仁苑大廈) and Yen Fu Mansion (仁富大廈) in Kwun

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