Why can’t Hongkongers resist illegal home improvements?

The phenomenon claims everyone from government officials and public figures to New Territories villagers, and the owner of one Lohas Park flat
While safety is paramount, the practice may reflect a need to update Hong Kong’s building codes and regulations to offer reasonable room for creativity

Dennis Lee

Published: 4:15pm, 8 Jun 2023

Why you can trust SCMP

Perhaps out of respect for people’s homes and privacy, the Buildings Department rarely carries out inspections for illegal construction, unless there are reasonable grounds to do so. Yet, illegal construction is a common practice in the city and the department tends to investigate only when illegal conditions are reported.

Unless, that is, one is foolish enough to share self-incriminating footage on social media showboating unauthorised renovations – which was what happened with one flat at The Capitol in Lohas Park, in Tseung Kwan O.

The most common “petty crimes” committed by designers and contractors include changing non-load-bearing-wall partitions, adding windows to balconies to seal them off as interior spaces, installing oversized awnings and overhangs at the building’s perimeter, and erecting rooftop structures.

While knowingly violating the building codes and regulations, in general, designers and contractors uphold a “code of honour” that any works should not pose a danger to others, and that structural components are untouchable.

Demolishing part of a structural wall to make way for a door was ludicrous on many levels. It takes collective stupidity, for lack of better words, for the designer to propose, the owner to approve, and the contractor to execute such irresponsible work without statutory review and approval.

One cannot claim ignorance, either, as it does not take an expert to identify structural walls on a floor plan and contractors had to cut through a lattice of steel rebar to create an opening.

The Capitol at Lohas Park in Tseung Kwan O. Building authorities and management at the residential complex have demanded that the owner of one flat where a load-bearing wall was modified take immediate action to ensure the safety of the entire block after an inspection uncovered code violations. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

It would certainly take an expert to perform the proper calculations and add a steel subframe to transfer the vertical loads above the doorway for a safe modification. Even if this was technically possible, given the safety concerns, it would be a rare developer or homeowners’ association that would agree to such a modification, much less the Buildings Department.

The citywide phenomenon of illegal construction covers all walks of life, building types and locations. The Lohas Park flat caught our attention because of critical safety concerns. Other incidents have been worth reporting because the offenders were political or public figures – any illegal act affects their integrity and reputation.

Remember the case of former chief executive candidate Henry Tang Ying-yen’s “underground palace” in Kowloon Tong that began in 2012? Or the six illegal alterations found in Leung Chun-ying’s home on The Peak soon after his election as chief executive, also in 2012? The media had a field day photographing their mansions with high-powered camera lenses on mobile cranes and joining inspection tours.

Since then, the public has continued to demand better of anyone who runs for public office or is appointed to a senior government position. This includes Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin, who took 14 years to remove an unauthorised canopy at her Mid-Levels home. It also includes spouses, such as engineer Otto Poon Lok-to, husband of the then-justice secretary Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah, who was fined HK$20,000 in 2019 over an illegal swimming pool.

Otto Poon’s house (centre right) and Teresa Cheng’s house (centre left) at Villa de Mer in Tuen Mun, are seen on April 23, 2019. Poon was found guilty of building an unauthorised pool in his garden. Photo: Sam Tsang

The government’s battle against illegal structures goes back decades. During Donald Tsang Yam-kuen’s administration (2005-2012), a battle was already gearing up between the Development Bureau and the Heung Yee Kuk, the powerful New Territories rural body, over the illegal additions to and expansions of “small houses” in villages, which were limited to three stories and 700 sq ft per floor.

It was a can of worms no official had wanted to touch for years. But Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who served as secretary for development in Tsang’s administration, was known as “a tough fighter”. She aspired to eradicate the out-of-control phenomenon and launched a registration scheme for village house owners to report their illegal construction, thus providing a grace period to put matters right without fear of prosecution.

Lam’s initiative died a slow death with heavy resistance from the kuk. For years after, the status quo remained, as if the issue had never been brought up.

Small-house policy has become a right to print money

Why do people find it so acceptable to illegally expand or modify their homes? One may argue that the practice, both casual and abusive, is a result of Hong Kong’s congested living conditions and expensive property. Yet the phenomenon applies to high-end villas as much as to tenement buildings and subdivided flats.

Regardless of education, income bracket or social stature, Hongkongers seem to subscribe to the culture of maximising the potential of their homes, large or small. Some even feel disadvantaged if they have not expanded their homes or sealed off their balconies because, it seems, everybody else gets away with it.

Architects and designers have a professional responsibility to educate owners to keep renovations within legal parameters, to define good design, to cultivate an appreciation of quality over mere quantity, to teach that balconies let in daylight and air, and that rooftops are great places for gardening and solar panels.

02:45

End of the high life for Hong Kong's unwanted rooftop dwellers

Meanwhile, the omnipresence of unauthorised building works may also reflect a need to update our building codes and regulations, to offer reasonable room for creativity.

We need our statutory bodies to consciously and continuously review modern-day living habits, customary changes, cultural shifts, construction technology improvements, and new materials and methods, so that building codes and requirements can keep up.

But no matter the circumstance, all design and construction works must hold safety in the highest regard. Which is why offenders should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, without exception.

Dennis Lee is a Hong Kong-born, America-licensed architect with years of design experience in the US and China