Updated at 5.23pm: The Housing Authority?s Commercial Properties Committee on Thursday approved new arrangements for tenants of Tai Wo Hau Factory Estate ? subject to a clearance, a spokesman said. The factory estate was built from 1961 to 1966. It needs to be cleared because of rising maintenance costs and an obsolete design, the spokesman explained. Under the arrangements, tenants and operators will be given 18 months to vacate their premises. They will be offered a three month rent-free lease of other HA factory units or a cash sum of $4,700 per unit. Ex-gratia allowances from $15,000 to $126,000 per unit will be paid to tenants. An advance payment of 70 per cent of the allowances would be paid on application, with the balance to be paid after delivery of a vacant possession, the spokesman said. Last month, HA?s Strategic Planning Committee endorsed the clearance of Tai Wo Hau Factory Estate, Kwun Tong Factory Estate, Kowloon Bay Factory Estate and Chai Wan Factory Estate in phases; the sites will be returned to the government for disposal after clearance. 'As the building condition of Tai Wo Hau Factory Estate is the least satisfactory, it is considered that the clearance and arrangements for the affected tenants in the estate should be dealt with first,' he explained. There are now 210 remaining tenancies at Tai Wo Hau Factory Estate occupying about 509 units. About 50 per cent are in active use. Under an early surrender scheme, 211 tenants holding 518 units have surrendered their premises. Tai Wo Hau Factory Estate comprises a four-storey, five-storey block and seven-storey block without a lift. There are about 1,035 factory units with standard sizes of 18 or 24 square metres.
