By
31 July 2003

There are currently around 155,843 households in the urban areas of Hong Kong that are accommodated in old public housing stock. There are also around another 8,000 obsolete buildings in the private sector that the government suggest need “treatment”. The recent experience with atypical pneumonia has highlighted the health risks that arise by living in incredibly densely populated areas in substandard buildings.

This paper looks at the possibility of reducing the population density of the urban areas and re-housing those in the worst of the public rental accommodation while allowing the government to attain its stated goal of extricating itself from the property development business.