Winners and losers from Link Reit’s 2005 takeover of Hong Kong estate malls

The real estate investment trust’s modernisation of malls, wet markets and shopping centres on public housing estates squeezed out some small businesses but created space for others, as well as big retail chains

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Link Watch chairwoman Sophia So criticises the sale of some malls, the loss of small-business tenants and the dominance of big retail chains in Link malls.

Published: 1:45pm, 11 Jan 2016Updated: 2:06pm, 11 Jan 2016

To some in Hong Kong, The Link Reit is the devil incarnate. Hence the image of a demon’s claw reaching from the cover of a book written by its biggest critics examining changes in the decade since the government divested its ownership of shopping centres, wet markets and other facilities in public housing estates to the real estate investment trust.

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The move brought HK$30 billion into the coffers of the Housing Authority. But when The Link launched in 2005, many feared that its focus on profits would drive up rents, force out small-business owners and, in turn, put a range of services out of reach of many low-income residents in the surrounding housing estates.

Customer Chan Lok cries as he hugs Hap Wah co-owner Chan Man-ying (centre), as her husband and co-owner Chow Cheung-tei looks on minutes before its closure last month on the Fu Shin Estate, Tai Po. Photo: Antony Dickson

A number of those concerns have come to pass. Hap Wah, a popular food stall that has served residents of Fu Shin Estate in Tai Po for nearly 30 years, is among the latest casualties. The owners wound up their business last month because they could not afford the HK$3 million required to renovate the stall to meet criteria set by The Link for renewing their tenancy. About 20 people lost their jobs.

SEE ALSO: Photo essay: shutters come down on a much loved Hong Kong food stall

Over the years, The Link has steadily rolled out an “asset enhancement” programme, spending HK$4.5 billion to implement 41 upgrade projects. A HK$1.25 billion makeover of three flagship properties turned them into the gleaming malls of Lok Fu Plaza, Stanley Plaza and H.A.N.D.S in Tuen Mun. Jewellers, wine shops and department stores such as UNY have displaced the old clothes and stationery shops that once filled Lok Fu.

The Link has also overhauled 10 of the 85 wet markets under its management. In Siu Sai Wan, the market was relaunched with considerable fanfare in August following a HK$25 million transformation. Its floor laid with colourful tiles, the market is now a decidedly upscale operation with a technological edge. To serve customers working long or odd hours, a vending machine called i-Fruit ensures 24-hour access to fresh apples, oranges and the like.

I-Chicken is one of a number of high-end shops at the newly renovated Siu Sai Wan market. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Then there is i-Chicken, a stall that aims to deliver the fresh poultry that Hongkongers favour without the mess that goes with slaughtering live birds. It is fitted with a television monitor linked to a live- chicken stall at nearby Chai Wan market, and customers in Siu Sai Wan can select their chickens remotely as workers at the other end hold up live birds to a camera for their inspection. The dressed birds are then delivered to the i-Chicken counter for pick-up.

As snazzy as the new operations in Siu Sai Wan are, the makeover comes at a price. Of the 50 stalls operated in the old market, just five remain. The survivors must cope with rent increases of between 30 per cent and 100 per cent: a 200 sq ft stall now costs HK$35,000 a month and a 400 sq ft site about HK$80,000.