Hong Kong’s cash-strapped Urban Renewal Authority (URA) may review its policy to reduce compensation to residents affected by redevelopments, its new chief has said, as the organisation faces financial challenges.
URA managing director Donald Choi Wun-hing said on Friday in his first meeting with the media that it was an appropriate time to review the current compensation package.
Residential flat owners receive the cash equivalent of the market price of a comparable seven-year-old flat in the same district under the current policy.
“We have room to discuss and review the compensation arrangement,” Choi said, adding that there should be flexibility for adjustments.
He cited offering cross-district resettlement with new land granted by the government in Tseung Kwan O as one of the examples.
The government last month made a rare move of granting the URA two land parcels in Hung Hom and Tseung Kwan O to provide extra financial help for its projects, under the conditions that the authority had to undertake urban redevelopment in a financially sustainable manner, “irrespective of market ups and downs”.
