My Take | Home truths must hurt for those who openly flout building laws
- Illegal structures exposed by landslide during rainstorm at luxury Redhill Peninsula estate highlight the need for adequate deterrent
Hong Kong has been under the weather recently, battered by a super typhoon and saturated in a record rainstorm. But for some, it never rains but it pours.
The owners of three luxury clifftop houses in the exclusive Redhill Peninsula estate in Tai Tam suffered damage to their properties when the deluge caused a landslide. The villas were left perched on the edge of the precipice.
But this was just the start of their problems. The landslip revealed all three properties housed illegal structures and unlawfully occupied government land. Now, they face legal action and possibly a huge bill for repairs to the slope.
The affair has triggered a storm of a different kind. These three houses are not isolated cases. A concern group, Liber Research Community, says it has identified 173 luxury properties in the city which have encroached on government land without permission.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has promised to take the issue seriously. Development minister Bernadette Linn Hon-ho yesterday said detached seaside houses on slopes would be targeted. Other houses at Redhill Peninsula are coming under scrutiny as well as those in other parts of the city.
Many will feel a sense of schadenfreude over the predicament of these wealthy owners of multimillion dollar mansions. One minute they are swimming in their illegal infinity pool, the next the earth has literally fallen from under their feet. But government pledges to crack down on illegal structures will prompt a rolling of eyes among long-term residents. They have heard it all before.