Tackling high rents at Hong Kong’s wet markets caused by Link Reit development
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam has promised to tackle what she has called the ‘three mountains’ the administration is facing, including the real estate investment trust, but those who live in the nearby public housing estates remain concerned
Wong Chui-yuk and her husband have spent every morning since their retirement taking the light rail to a wet market complex 20 minutes from their home in Tuen Mun.
They have no appetite for the food from the wet market next to their flat in Yau Oi Estate, where there has been a 40 per cent price rise for groceries since a big renovation by Link Reit management company was completed last year.
“Why should I pay HK$20 extra for a day’s meals or be bothered about fancy vegetables from Japan or the Netherlands?” Wong said.
“It was a huge mistake to sell the markets to a company that cares nothing about the public.”
With the Housing Authority plagued by dwindling rental incomes in 2005 – caused by a halted supply of public flats – it sold the shopping malls and wet markets attached to public housing estates to the Link in 2005. In doing so, it added HK$30 billion into its coffers.