Hong Kong’s housing crisis long blamed on land shortage, but are other factors at play?
- Project delays, focus on luxury flats by city’s rail giant, which is allowed to develop land above and around stations, have caused concern
- Urban Renewal Authority, meanwhile, producing just 700 flats a year, while government bureaus sometimes find themselves at cross purposes
In the second of a three-part series on Hong Kong’s housing crisis, the Post looks at the part played by the MTR Corporation and Urban Renewal Authority in providing homes for Hongkongers. Read part one here.
Joanna Wong remembers the excitement of being among the first residents to move into Lohas Park, a seafront private estate in Tseung Kwan O in 2009.
Her family of three paid HK$11,000 a month to rent a 680 sq ft flat in one of the five blocks at The Capitol, the project’s first phase.
A dozen more phases were planned for the sprawling 32-hectare site in the New Territories, boasting names such as Le Prestige, Le Prime, La Splendour, Wings at Sea, Malibu and Sea to Sky, and blocks taller than 60 storeys.
Built by the city’s rail operator, the MTR Corporation, the project with 25,000 flats promised residents a shopping centre, a park and greenery, pet recreation areas, and landscaping with waterfalls and gardens.
For Wong and her neighbours, however, the past 11 years have meant putting up with noise and dust from never-ending construction, and the lack of amenities other than the Lohas Park railway station with its infrequent service, a supermarket, a fast-food shop and a clinic.
Most bus routes to Kowloon only became available in the past two years. Before that residents had to travel to Tseung Kwan O town centre for groceries and other services.
