Cheung Sha Wan tenement blocks to be redeveloped

The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) announced on Friday that it’s redeveloping a total of 30,000 square metres of land in Cheung Sha Wan to build nearly 2,000 flats.

The authority’s general manager, Mike Kwan, said part of the project involves tearing down nine-storey tenement buildings around Kim Shin Lane to build a thousand private flats by 2031.

“Kim Shin Lane has very old tenement buildings built in 1959, with the buildings aged over 60. Its building environment is not very good, it has safety problems, health problems and other problems which [call for] redevelopment,” he said.

Kwan said around 2,100 families living in the tenement blocks will be affected, as will 120 shops in the area.

Eligible tenants of subdivided flats will be moved to public housing estates – an arrangement welcomed by a resident of Kim Shin Lane surnamed Lee.

The housewife, who lives with her husband and son, said she hopes the redevelopment plan will improve their living conditions.

“I want to be allocated a public housing unit soon, because… there’s loose concrete falling off and water seepage here,” she said.

“There’s a light well next to our flat, with centipedes crawling around and… people throwing stuff down.”

A flat owner surnamed Pun, meanwhile, said she had mixed feelings about the redevelopment project.

“After all I’ve been living here for dozens of years, I know my neighbours well,” she said.

Pun said it would be great to be given a replacement flat in the future development – an alternative option to cash compensation.

Meanwhile, Cheung Sha Wan Sports Centre will be relocated in order to build 800 flats on Cheung Wah Street by 2033.

A bigger sports centre will be built inside a new government complex across the street where there is now a sitting-out area and government depot, the URA said.