Trial Run To Offer Services To Ageing Hong Kong Residential Buildings In 4 Districts

Single-block residential buildings in four old Hong Kong districts are set to receive property management services from the middle of the year under a pilot scheme aimed at tackling long-standing problems of urban decay.

Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak Mei-kuen said on Saturday that Yau Tsim Mong district was the first to be consulted by her bureau about the plan under the joint property management scheme.

Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City and Tsuen Wan will follow later this month.

“We hope that by the middle of this year, we will be able to launch this scheme,” the minister told a radio programme. “We’re going to start with implementing the joint property management scheme in these four areas this year.”

The plan is part of a proposal revealed in last year’s policy address.

Under the scheme, the same property management company will be engaged to provide joint management services for groups of ageing buildings, helping at least two at a time. The move will enable “three-nil” and old buildings to access basic property management services at affordable prices.

Three-nil buildings are those that do not have an owners’ corporation or any form of residents’ organisation, and do not employ a property management company.

Mak said the scheme’s grouping of more flats into each management contract would help to spread the costs among homeowners, with fees expected to be as low as about HK$100 (US$13) a month per home. She referred to the Urban Renewal Authority’s experience in Kowloon City to provide the figures.

The cost depended on whether the building required repair services, and not just security and cleaning, she said.

Mak added that such contracts could also be more attractive to management companies.

The government has asked NGOs to help homeowners establish corporations to provide professional services for two to three years, which would also allow management skills to be passed on.

The NGOs were also expected to help homeowners join the pilot scheme and hire management companies, the minister said.

The government has budgeted HK$7 million to implement the scheme, which included commissioning NGOs to draft service recommendations to boost owners’ participation in the selected districts.

Some NGOs would encourage homeowners to install advertising screens on their building facades to add an extra source of revenue as an incentive.

Mak noted that her bureau’s care teams, which were spreading the message about management services, met many elderly owners in their 390,000 visits in January.

The absence of owners’ corporations can cause maintenance to be neglected and make it difficult for buildings to comply with official orders from authorities.

Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak says the scheme will lower costs for homeowners using the property management services. Photo: Yik Yeung-man.

In January, a man was injured when a chunk of concrete fell from the facade of a building on Percival Street in Causeway Bay and hit him in the head.

Two people were hit in a similar incident at Ka Wai Chuen estate in Hung Hom in December last year.

Management companies are regulated by the Property Management Services Authority.

Mak’s bureau has weekly meetings about owners’ corporations and property management, referring problems or compliance failures to the authority’s board for follow-up.

The city is facing a crisis of ageing buildings, with the number of private homes in buildings aged over 70 years set to rise from about 1,000 in 2018 to 373,000 by 2048.

According to Planning Department data, the number of private homes in buildings over 50 years old will increase more than three times from 198,000 to 854,000 in the same period.

“Owners have the responsibility to manage their buildings. Many owners have the illusion that if they do not form an owners’ incorporation need to do it, it’s none of [their] business,” Mak said.

“We hope that we will implement some initiatives through this scheme to help owners fulfil their responsibilities, and manage their own assets and homes.”