TABLE OF CONTENTS - The Professional Green Building Council

Theme B: Creating a livable, healthy and environmentally viable citiesFigure 4: Mark VI blocks in Lam Tin EstateIn April 1973, the new Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) was established by theGovernment to develop and implement the public housing policies and programme.The HA is responsible for all aspect of public housing developments including thepublic rental estates, Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats for sale, flattedfactories and ancillary commercial and other non-domestic facilities etc. Toimplement the public housing development, Housing Department (HD) was alsoformed to act as the executive arm of the HA.In 1980, about 45% of Hong Kong’s population lived in public housing estates.The HA initiated a review of the structural condition of its housing stock, whichindicated growing maintenance problems with the old estates. The first survey inMarch 1984 showed that approximately half of the buildings inspected at that timewere likely to require significant repair work. As a further follow-up action, amore intensive structural coring survey was conducted which recommended theHA to demolish 26 structurally unfit blocks. To enable such large-scaledemolition to proceed, an Extended Redevelopment Programme (ERP) wasdeveloped, giving priority to rehousing the affected residents in the same districtwherever possible within 3-year period. This required the urgent acquisition ofsupplementary public housing sites in addition to offering residents priority statusto purchase their own flats through the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS), whereavailable without affecting the programme of redeveloping the Mark I & II blocks.368