Lowering threshold for consent will help sellers and developers

In his article ('Home wreckers', March 9), Mike Rowse might have underestimated the complexity of the issue. He likened small homeowners to innocent victims whose interests would be ignored by big developers once the compulsory sale threshold is lowered [from 90 per cent to 80 per cent].

Nobody wants to leave their home or neighbourhood. They are full of precious memories. However, there are actually far more owners in 'fairly old' tenement buildings who want to sell their premises at the right price than those who insist on staying on. After all, some five decades' of wear and tear have already taken their toll on such a building and the costs of maintenance borne by existing owners, many of them retired, will only rise over time.

Mr Rowse also suggested that developers offer a replacement flat in the new-built development. That would not work either, as anyone familiar with the property market can tell. His idea is impractical.

When insiders - estate agents and speculators alike - are aware that a replacement flat is guaranteed in the new development (The Masterpiece in Tsim Sha Tsui, just to name one), the huge incentive will immediately spark speculative purchases. Handed over a hot new Masterpiece flat, these speculators will sell it for a windfall of millions on the open market. This get-rich-quick story will only set off a frenzy of speculation in redevelopment areas. In 2008 a small group of homeowners affected by the Kwun Tong redevelopment project claimed that the acquisition price should be 2.5 to three times the fair value of their properties because they could not find a replacement flat of seven years of age in exactly the same location.

There are no seven-year-old flats in Kwun Tong. It looked as if small owners' interest had been sacrificed but, to be fair, their compensation was more than enough to buy a decent flat in other well-established developments a few MTR stops away.

I do not have a vested interest or association with any developer. But I believe that lowering the threshold to 80 per cent of flat owners' consent for a forced sale of a 50-year-old building will help remove some obstacles to the regeneration of many run-down areas, while opening up a market in which home sellers and developers are on a level playing field when it comes to negotiations.