One in 25 buildings don't meet standards: survey
About 4 per cent of 140 residential buildings in an old district had unsatisfactory building hygiene and safety, according to a survey by a research team from the University of Hong Kong.
The buildings, mostly single blocks averaging 28 years old located in Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei and Tsim Sha Tsui, were surveyed and inspected by researchers from the Department of Architecture and Department of Real Estate and Construction last year.
But the team said the unsatisfactory buildings might not pose any imminent danger as the rating covered a wide range of areas not all directly related to higher safety or environmental risks. Common problems were poor management, illegal structures, blocked fire exits, lack of insurance and corroded water pipes and electrical cables. The researchers made no mention of the risk of falling concrete.
Compiling the Building Quality Index, researchers rated buildings with indexes measuring health and hygiene conditions and safety conditions.
Sub-indexes covered two broad categories of building design and management. Factors examined included architecture, building services, external environment, management operations and approach.
The survey said 72 per cent of the buildings were graded 'fair' concerning health and hygiene conditions, while 43 per cent were 'fair' in terms of safety. Others were in either 'good' or 'very good' condition.
The team believed the ratings of most of the buildings could be lifted if they had an owners' incorporation and hired a property management company.
The team has made public a list of buildings in good and very good condition. But they declined to reveal those buildings in fair or unsatisfactory condition.
'We have to give the results to the building owners first and would only consider releasing the lists when we have completed surveys on more buildings,' said Chau Kwong-wing, dean of the faculty of architecture. He added that their research results could also be shared with the Urban Renewal Authority.
He said the researchers planned to set up a building assessment centre next year in response to the government's proposal of mandatory building inspections.
'The centre will offer training to those carrying out building inspections and set out unified standards of measurement,' Professor Chau said.
The team will study about 200 buildings in North Point this year.
