Run-down Hong Kong flats set to be rebuilt in HK$770m Urban Renewal Authority project
Run-down estate in Kowloon tipped to be final demand-led project for Urban Renewal Authority under a system now deemed unprofitable
Owners of a dilapidated building in Tai Kok Tsui had their wishes granted yesterday, when the Urban Renewal Authority earmarked the 474 square metre plot for redevelopment.
But the HK$770 million project may be the last time the URA agrees to owners' requests to take over such a small site as it focuses its demand-led programme on bigger, more lucrative locations. The URA expects to lose money on redeveloping the nine-storey building on Ash Street, but said it opted to intervene because of the shabby state of the 50-year-old property.
"The living conditions there are not ideal and we hope to help residents in old districts like this improve their living environment," Christopher Wong Chi-man, the authority's assistant general manager for planning and design, said yesterday.
The building has six ground-floor shops and about 65 flats.
When that happens, the URA will demolish the property and build about 69 flats on the site.
Wong said the project would not yield significantly more floor space, given the site's limits.
It is the 11th demand-led project, and the last selected under old rules that have been blamed for losses at the URA, a self-financing body whose fiscal health has suffered under high acquisition costs resulting from the heated property market.
In December, outgoing URA managing director Iris Tam Siu-ying said criteria would be tightened, so only sites of at least 700 square metres would qualify, up from 400 square metres.
The authority said bigger sites would enhance community planning, but critics suspected the real reason was financial. It helped fuel a debate about whether the URA was putting cash ahead of its mission to society - a question Tam raised when she announced her resignation in March.
Chui Wai-chun, 73, who lives in a family-owned flat with her husband, was happy with the deal as owners had failed to agree on sharing maintenance costs.
But it worried Luo Chaoqun, 30, who leases a rooftop home with her husband and three children. "We have been waiting for public rental housing for three to four years. I hope we can be allocated a flat as soon as possible."
Land Justice League member Icarus Wong Ho-yin said site area should not be the sole consideration when vetting applications.
"If residents are in need, the URA should help improve their lives, otherwise it will be no different from private developers."
