To explore obstacles affecting building rehabilitation of old private residential building in Hong Kong

Abstract

Various studies from different universities and government departments indicated that Hong Kong is facing a serious urban decay problem. Redevelopment is costly and slow in progress. The average acquisition time used for redevelopment is over 6 years, and public doubted on social and environmental impact aroused from redevelopment projects. Relocated households lost their social support and networks after redevelopment and not all of them can opt for re-housing. In addition, the 7-years money compensation policy cannot catch up with the rapid increase of property market value and public quires about whether redevelopment can really improve people’s living condition and fulfill the original goal and objective of building redevelopment. By contrast, building rehabilitation was highly promoted by the government and professional bodies in solving the problem of urban decay. Without wasting time and cost on relocation of households, their living environment can still improve through building rehabilitation. However, recent studies found out that owners are unwilling to carry out building rehabilitation. In order to find out obstacles affecting building rehabilitation of old private residential building in Hong Kong and speed up the building rehabilitation to solve long term urban decay problem, personal in-depth interviews were conducted together with 77 questionnaires sent to owners of both single building blocks and large residential building estate to ascertain their views on building rehabilitation in old private residential building in Hong Kong. The findings showed that the positive effect of building rehabilitation is highly recognized by the public. However, it is difficult for owners to coordinate enough ownership to carry out building rehabilitation without the help of property management or Incorporated Owner and supports from government departments. The threat of government’s statutory orders and mandatory building inspection scheme had only little deterrent effect to owners who did not complied with the legal requirement and also the enforcement action from government departments is not strong enough too. Moreover, the findings showed that owners are motivated to carry out building rehabilitation if there is economic assistance to maintain their existing social network. Recommendations were proposed to provide more economic and technical supports from Urban Renewal Authority (URA) and Home Affair Department (HAD) for owners who carrying out building rehabilitation. Government should enhance the statutory enforcement along with enhancement propaganda of building rehabilitation.