Some affected residents have continued to express reservations over a Hong Kong government plan to resettle survivors of the Tai Po fire, saying they prefer in situ development as they fear an “unfair” flat selection process will leave their families with smaller homes. The residents urged the government to provide more clarity on how the…
May Chan is looking for a home that she can call her own. The freelancer wants to buy a flat, but high mortgage rates as well as uncertainty in the property market kept her from taking the plunge. “I would like to buy a flat, if I can afford it,” she said. “It would certainly…
The acquisition price for properties damaged in Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po fire will be “far lower” if homeowners reject the government’s buy-back offer and authorities are forced to use legislation to acquire the remaining properties, a senior official has said. Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun on Sunday dismissed claims that the government was…
Some homeowners displaced by the deadly Tai Po blaze were disappointed by Hong Kong authorities’ decision to buy back their flats instead of resettling them at the original site, even as the acquisition offer was described by surveyors as “generous”. Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun unveiled the long-term resettlement plan on Saturday, offering options…
The Hong Kong government is set to unveil a resettlement plan for owners who lost their homes in the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire in Tai Po as early as Saturday, offering buy-back options at higher-than-expected prices, the South China Morning Post has learned. Government sources said the acquisition prices for properties without land premiums…
Hong Kong plumber Anson Hui Po-lung is ready to work through his Lunar New Year break to make ends meet, after struggling since the citywide removal of scaffolding nets began in early December, in response to the deadly blaze at Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court. Twenty public housing projects and 230 private buildings undergoing major…
Unusually warm weather in Hong Kong has forced flower sellers at Lunar New Year fairs to contend with premature blooms while also navigating a retail landscape where heavy foot traffic masked a tightening of local purse strings. On Sunday, the Observatory recorded a maximum temperature of 26.9 degrees Celsius (80.4 Fahrenheit) at its headquarters in…
Hong Kong’s anti-graft watchdog has arrested 22 people on suspicion of corruption linked to seven building renovation projects worth more than HK$200 million (US$25.6 million). The suspects – 17 men and five women, aged 36 to 78 – included directors and employees of four project consultancy firms and three contractors, as well as some of…
A Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) student who was arrested for sedition after launching a petition calling for an independent committee to investigate the Tai Po fire has said he has been expelled from the institution. “I was just expelled by CUHK,” Miles Kwan Ching-fung wrote on social media at midnight on Friday, ending…
A driver and his passenger were arrested after their car, which had an expired licence and allegedly contained small amounts of the drug etomidate, hit a police vehicle, a taxi and a bus while attempting to evade officers on a northern Hong Kong road. The crash on Thursday left three people injured including two police…