Residents offered flat-for-flat compensation at the Pak Tai Street redevelopment project will have to opt for a new but smaller apartment, details unveiled yesterday by the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) show.
Two-thirds of flats being built by the authority on the Ma Tau Kok site and at Kai Tak would be cheap enough to be covered by owners' cash compensation; some owners might have cash left over.
Owner-occupiers choosing a larger flat on one of the higher levels would have to pay an additional HK$370,000 to HK$1.3 million, according to the valuation commissioned by the authority for its first flat-for-flat project.
However, while most of the existing flats in the Pak Tai Street project are about 620 sq ft in saleable area, most flats made available by the authority in Kai Tak and the existing site will be smaller. The sizes range from 248 sq ft to 669 sq ft.
The smaller size and the modest design allow the authority's flats to be more affordable than other developers'. But owners will have to find temporary housing until their flats are ready. The Kai Tak flats should become available by 2016 and those at Pak Tai Street by 2018.
'The no-frills flats will not have extravagant clubhouse facilities or a huge lobby designed with expensive materials,' William Wan, the authority's property and land director, said.