A law to make it easier for developers to acquire old buildings for redevelopment should not be passed in haste without adequate protection of individual property owners and planning safeguards, concern groups say.
They say the collapse last month of a 55-year-old tenement in To Kwa Wan should not be viewed as an impetus to speedily pass the law.
The original law, introduced in 1999, enables developers to force the sale of remaining properties in an old block once they have acquired 90 per cent. The proposal is to lower the threshold to 80 per cent.
Other arrangements will remain the same - the Lands Tribunal sets the reserve price of the compulsory auction after considering both the flat owners' and the developers' assessments of the price. The law will cover all buildings more than 50 years old where at least 80 per cent of the flats have been bought.
The legal amendment, tabled in the legislature last month, will be passed without a vote on April 1 if the majority of lawmakers do not object to it. A study of the 20 cases that went to the tribunal under the original law found that not all owners were happy with the price at which they sold their flats, an alliance comprising urban planning concern groups and individual owners said.
For example, Wong Chi-sum, who owned a 1,200 square foot flat in the Kam Kwok Building in Wan Chai, said he was only offered HK$4.5 million after he lost a case in court in 2008.