Hong Kong’s Urban Renewal Authority (URA) received seven tender submissions for a major waterfront residential redevelopment project in Hung Hom, drawing bids from some of the city’s largest developers despite a subdued land market. The authority said on Monday that seven developers submitted tenders for the project before the noon deadline. A tender review panel…
Hong Kong’s development minister has vowed to tighten monitoring of contractors and explore harsher penalties for industry misconduct following criticisms that the government’s reliance on their self-supervision was partly to blame for the deadly Tai Po blaze. But Bernadette Linn Hon-ho also defended the current regulatory system, stressing that violations were penalised. “The monitoring system…
Some residents displaced by Hong Kong’s deadliest inferno in decades have called for merging the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) with the Buildings Department, after a public inquiry revealed regulatory failures linked to communication problems between the two arms with similar functions. In recommendations submitted to the independent committee investigating the Wang Fuk Court…
An independent inquiry into Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po fire has concluded after examining more than 1 million files and hearing from 80 witnesses across 30 public sessions, uncovering the causes of the blaze that killed 168 people. The panel, chaired by Justice David Lok Kai-hong, wrapped up its hearings on Friday after proceedings that…
An administrative “honour system” that relied on Hong Kong’s private sector to regulate itself created oversight loopholes and left obvious fire hazards at the Wang Fuk Court housing estate unchecked before last year’s inferno, legal counsel for an independent committee investigating the disaster has said. In the final session of 30 days of public hearings,…
An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will hear concluding remarks from the government on Thursday as the final round of hearings on the tragedy continues. The legal representative for nine residents of the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court housing estate in Tai Po will also deliver a concluding statement before the judge-led…
Residents of Hong Kong’s blaze-ravaged Wang Fuk Court would still have died even if the housing estate’s fire alarms had been working during last year’s inferno, a contractor has suggested, prompting the judge overseeing a public inquiry into the disaster to question whether he was attempting to evade responsibility. Legal counsel for a director of…
Hong Kong’s government will release just one residential site for sale in the July to September quarter, maintaining a cautious approach even as the housing market rebounds, while officials argue that supply from other channels will keep the city on track to meet its housing targets. A 5,170-square-metre (55,649 sq ft) site on Fat Kwong…
Hundreds of Hongkongers gathered in Kwun Tong overnight on Saturday to bid farewell to the streets around a historic town centre before they faded into history, with many stopping to capture one last photograph of a neighbourhood that had been part of their lives for decades. Families, couples and former residents queued beneath the Yue…
Hong Kong’s Urban Renewal Authority will help owners of 40 housing estates undergoing maintenance work to hire temporary reviewers for their projects, after their original consultant came under investigation following the deadly Tai Po fire. The authority announced on Tuesday that it would launch tenders for the 40 estates that had previously engaged Will Power…