Developer opposition eases on public housing at Kai Tak

Private developers have softened their tones about official moves to put 10,700 light public homes in a Kai Tak area set to become a major business district, saying they have no reason to oppose the project amid pressing housing needs.

After a Real Estate Developers Association meeting yesterday, chairman Stewart Leung Chi-kin said members are fine with the transitional public housing in Kai Tak as long as it is not on the old runway area - a prime site for luxury private housing offering seaview flats.

Authorities have revealed plans for the light public homes - units will be made in sections elsewhere then assembled on site - at a 5.7-hectare plot on Olympic Avenue, Kai Tak, with the first flats ready for people to move in by the first quarter of 2026.

The housing site will be vacated in 2031 and then developed with commercial and leisure projects.

Leung said developers can accept using Kai Tak for short-term light public housing.

"Developers agree with whatever the government does to address public needs, especially when this project only lasts for five years," he said.

"Our only concern is transportation," he added, saying Kai Tak MTR station may not be able to manage the growing population.

On that, Leung said flats on the runway area are also being built even faster.

He asked: "Will the entire Kai Tak area be congested?"

Then he noted that officials have said they will solve any problems, so "with that promise and Hong Kong's demands [for] transitional housing we have no reason to oppose."

Leung also said the proposed estate is near the MTR station and would have limited impact on developers' private projects on Park Peninsula at the old runway area.

And government sources said the light public housing estate will be right next to the MTR station, and there will be some 30 bus routes on the adjacent Prince Edward Road East.

But residents in Kai Tak expressed strong opposition to public housing in their neighborhood.

Kai Tak Central and South councilor Cheung King-fan said the move is unfair to people who bought homes there, believing in authorities' vision to make the area a second central business district.

"Many families have spent their life savings to settle in the area, but the government changed its plans afterward," he said.

Kowloon Central Legislative Council member Yang Wing-kit also sided with Kai Tak residents.

They have applied to police for approval to host an assembly at Olympic Avenue on Saturday, February 11.

If the police issue a letter of no objection for the event it will be the first legal assembly since Covid-19 hit in the SAR in January 2020.

The Kai Tak light public housing is among eight projects to offer some 30,000 flats over the next 10 years, with an estimated cost of HK$14.9 billion.

In a paper to the Legco public works subcommittee yesterday, the Housing Bureau said the projects can save authorities up to HK$2 billion in subsidies to people waiting for public housing.

The savings figure was taken as a bid to cool opposition to light public housing in some districts.