Owners of at least 10 clusters of old residential buildings are interested in inviting the Urban Renewal Authority to redevelop their flats under a new scheme, details of which will be announced by the authority today.
Dubbed a demand-led approach, the new mechanism allows owners to initiate and apply for redevelopment if a majority agrees to it.
It is aimed at tackling public concerns about the URA's lack of transparency in selecting projects and the impression that it chooses only profitable ones.
Most of those who expressed interest live in old tenement buildings in Tai Kok Tsui, Sham Shui Po, To Kwa Wan and Kowloon City, where lifts are lacking and flats are often divided into rental apartments.
'These old buildings were built in the 1960s,' Yau Tsim Mong district councillor Henry Chan Man-yu said.
'Elderly people living in poor conditions have to walk up as far as the ninth floor, while the division of flats aimed at tenants looking for a cheap place undermines the safety of the buildings.'
He said most residents living in Tai Nan, Ki Lung and Poplar streets in Sham Shui Po wanted redevelopment, although consensus had not been gained from shop owners.