Case abstract
Hunghom Peninsula was a residential building complex with a superior location in Hong Kong. The harbour-view flats were originally built under the government’s abandoned Private Sector Participation Scheme, a program intended to provide affordable housing for middle-class residents. Fears by wealthy land owners and developers that the scheme would erode property values in a shrinking market led the government to abandon the subsidized housing scheme altogether in 2002. The two developers, New World Development Company Limited (NWD) and Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited (SHKP), Hong Kong’s two biggest developers which had been engaged in the construction of Hunghom, subsequently came forward to take ownership of Hunghom Peninsula. After taking the project, the consortium announced the demolition of these buildings to make way for luxury apartments.
The protest voices from environmentalists, nearby residents and even councillors criticized the government’s careless decision, especially the negligence of social responsibilities as well as other social shareholders’ interests and environmental concerns in yielding to real estate developers’ profit-oriented plan. Faced with a huge popular outcry about the needless destruction of “perfectly good buildings” to satisfy “corporate greed”, the two developers, NWD and SHKP dropped their demolition plan in favour of other less profitable but more environmental-friendly renovation plans.
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