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Link Reit
Opinion
Francis Neoton Cheung
Opinion
Francis Neoton Cheung

Don’t blame mall owners or Link Reit for problems at public housing estate shops

  • Issues over provision of retail facilities to estate tenants go back a lot further than recent sales by Link to private buyers

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Lok Fu Place in Kowloon, a shopping centre managed by the Link Reit. Photo: Sam Tsang
Francis Neoton Cheung
Francis Neoton Cheung is the chairman of Doctoral Exchange, a public policy research collective, and a former member of the Land and Building Advisory Committee.

In the past few years, buyers of shopping centres at public housing estates sold by Link Reit have come under increasing criticism for the changes they have made to their acquisitions.

Public housing tenants complain about the gentrification of malls that are supposed to serve them, while steep rent rises have forced out many small businesses, leaving increasing numbers of vacant shop spaces. There are even claims that the new owners of certain former Link shopping malls have deliberately kept store spaces empty so they could be rented out at higher rates later.

Last month, New People’s Party chairwoman Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee mooted a private member’s bill in Legco to cap rent rises at the Link’s current and former shopping malls. She also called for a vacancy tax on stores left empty for more than six months. Pan-democratic lawmaker Au Nok-hin joined in, demanding a complete ban on any further rent increases as well as on any change of use at the malls.

However, many of the common criticisms are misplaced. From a planning and urban governance perspective, the issues surrounding former Link shopping malls stem from the government’s poorly conceived decision to hive off huge swathes of the Housing Authority’s retail facilities 15 years ago.

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