Bruce Lee's home sold to help quake victims

The former Hong Kong home of kung fu legend Bruce Lee is to be sold to raise money for China's earthquake relief effort, a news report said today.

The two-storey house in the city's exclusive Kowloon Tong residential district, where Lee spent his final years before his death in 1973, is expected to fetch around $US13 million ($A13.51 million).

Its owner is Yu Panglin who bought the house for $US108,000 ($A112,266.11) in the 1960s and was landlord to the star of Enter The Dragon and Fists Of Fury when Lee lived there with his wife Linda Lee-Cadwell.

Lee affectionately named the house Crane's Nest, and was living there when he died mysteriously at the peak of his stardom at the home of an actress friend in another part of Kowloon Tong. He was 32.

Until five years ago the house was used as a "love hotel" where couples rented rooms at hourly rates, much to the disappointment of Bruce Lee fan club members who wanted it turned into a museum and shrine to their hero.

Yu, an 86-year-old philanthropist, is selling the house along with four other Hong Kong properties to raise money towards victims of the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province, the South China Morning Post reported.

Hong Kong people have already donated over $HK1 billion ($A133.06 million)) towards the disaster relief effort with tycoon Li Ka-shing, the city's richest man, giving a solo donation of almost $US4 million ($A4.16 million).