Press Releases
Year 2025
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28 Mar 2025
Encouraging Professionals to Contribute Their Ideas for the Urban Renewal of Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) and the Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) jointly announce the launch of the “Idea Competition for the Urban Renewal for Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok” today (28 March 2025). This competition invites professionals, graduates and students to contribute innovative and creative designs that will provide solutions for shaping two of Hong Kong’s most densely populated old districts into a vibrant urban area for living, working and leisure. The competition builds on the findings of the District Study for Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok (the Study), conducted by the URA between 2017 and 2021. Covering approximately 212 hectares, the Study aimed to develop strategies to transform the area into a liveable, sustainable, diverse and vibrant metropolitan hub. Particip
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27 Mar 2025
Invitation to Tender - URA’s Shantung Street / Thistle Street Development Scheme
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) today (27 March 2025) invited a total of 28 developers to submit a tender for the development of the Shantung Street / Thistle Street Development Scheme (YTM-012 Project) in Kowloon. The URA will provide the tender documents to the invited developers to prepare their tenders for YTM-012 Project. The invited developers may form a consortium with eligible company/companies which fulfil the requirements prescribed in the tender documents to submit tender proposals. Interested parties have to submit their tender proposals to the URA Headquarters at 26/F COSCO Tower, 183 Queen’s Road Central, by 12 noon on 13 May 2025 (Tuesday). Late submissions will not be considered. A tender review panel under the URA Board will carefully examine the submissions r
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6 Mar 2025
28 Expressions of Interest Received for URA’s Shantung Street / Thistle Street Development Scheme
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) received a total of 28 Expressions of Interest (“EOI”) for the development of the Shantung Street / Thistle Street Development Scheme (YTM-012 Project) in Kowloon before the deadline for submission at noon today (6 March 2025). A tender review panel under the URA Board will evaluate the submissions and shortlist qualified developers and consortia based on their development experience and financial capability. The shortlisted developers and consortia will be invited to submit tenders for the development of YTM-012 Project according to the principal tender terms previously approved by the URA Board. YTM-012 Project is located in the vicinity of one of the Development Nodes proposed in the District Study for Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok. To align with the
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19 Feb 2025
Invitation for Expression of Interest – URA’s Shantung Street / Thistle Street Development Scheme
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) will invite developers and consortia to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to develop the Shantung Street / Thistle Street Development Scheme (YTM-012 Project) in Kowloon tomorrow (20 February 2025). The URA launched the pilot Development Facilitation Services (DFS) for YTM-012 Project in January 2025. Prior to the tendering process, DFS provided a platform to present the features and background information of YTM-012 to interested developers, allowing them more time to understand the project details. Interested developers were given the opportunity to express their views on YTM-012 Project as needed. The URA has collected quite a number of opinions from DFS which have been analysed. Covering a site area of 2,475 square metres[1], YTM-012 Pr
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3 Feb 2025
URA Issues Acquisition Offers to Property Owners of Kau Pui Lung Road / Chi Kiang Street Development Scheme
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) today (3 February 2025) issued acquisition offers to property owners of its Kau Pui Lung Road / Chi Kiang Street Development Scheme (the Project*), the second pilot project in Kowloon City to redevelop buildings under the Civil Servants’ Co-operative Building Society (CBS) Scheme. The redevelopment of CBS buildings involves a range of processes, including the dissolution of CBSs, modification of the Government lease, assigning flats to ex-CBS members, and setting up owners’ corporations by ex-CBS members. Upon acquiring the titles of the CBS flats, the ex-CBS members are obliged to pay land premium to the Government to remove the alienation restrictions before their flats can be disposed in the open market. The URA will acquire the CBS properties aft
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24 Jan 2025
URA Recognises the Volunteer Docents of “Touring Central with Locals” and Announces Extension Activities
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) held a ceremony today (24 January 2025) to recognise the volunteer docents of the “Touring Central with Locals” (volunteer docents) under the “City Walk” Programme in Central and Sheung Wan. It also announced various collaborations with the business and tourism sectors as extension activities of “Touring Central with Locals” to further boost tourism in Central and Sheung Wan, injecting new vitality into the community. Held at the Central Market, the appreciation ceremony was officiated by Under Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Mr Raistlin Lau, URA Managing Director Ir Wai Chi-sing, District Officer (Central and Western) Mr David Leung Chee-kay, Territorial Commander of The Salvation Army Hong Kong and Macau Territory Colonel Philip Maxwell and
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9 Jan 2025
URA Responds to PCPD’s Investigation Report
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) noted that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong (PCPD) has completed its investigation and issued an investigation report (the Report) today (9 January 2025) on a security incident involving a cloud server platform (the Incident) reported by the URA on 13 May 2024. The URA will study the Report in details and take appropriate follow-up actions. The URA acknowledged the investigation findings of PCPD and agreed that had the URA’s technical staff timely updated the version of the software of the e-Form Platform, and used the most updated version when designing the e-forms, or had sufficient knowledge on the setting for “data sharing” of the e-Form software and the cloud platform, the Incident would not have occurred. Sin
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2 Jan 2025
URA Signs HK$13 Billion Bank Loan Facilities
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) announced today (2 January 2025) the successful signing of a five-year Facility Agreement amounting to HK$13 billion. The facilities, which consist of a term loan and a revolving credit facility, provide the URA with the financial flexibility to execute its projects and capital improvement plans efficiently. The consortium of participating banks includes Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited as Coordinator, Mizuho Bank, Ltd. Hong Kong Branch as Agent, Agricultural Bank of China Limited Hong Kong Branch, Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited, Bank of Communications, Hong Kong Branch, China Development Bank, Hong Kong Branch, CMB Wing Lung Bank, DBS Bank Ltd Hong Kong Branch, Hang Seng Bank Limited, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporat
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13 Dec 2024
Lighting Ceremony for URA’s Flower Market Christmas Festive Event
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA), in collaboration with the Yau Tsim Mong District Office, launched the Flower Market Christmas Festive Event today (13 December 2024) at the Flower Market in Mong Kok with a lighting ceremony. The ceremony was officiated by District Officer (Yau Tsim Mong) Mr Edward Yu, URA Managing Director Ir Wai Chi-sing, URA Non-Executive Director Ir Janice Lai, Chairman of the Yau Tsim Mong North Area Committee Mr Daniel Au, and representative from the Hong Kong Wholesale Florist Association Mr Terence Ma, signifying the commencement of the festive celebration at the Flower Market. The URA’s Flower Market Christmas Festive Event runs from today until 5 January 2025. The URA and the Yau Tsim Mong District Office have jointly adorned the Flower Market with festiv
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6 Dec 2024
Lighting Ceremony for Christmas Panda Installations of the URA’s “WINTER TRANSFORM” Festive Event
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) is hosting a large-scale event, “WINTER TRANSFORM” at the “Free Space” in Kwun Tong Town Centre starting today (6 December 2024) to celebrate the festive season with the public. The lighting ceremony for the Christmas panda installations was held in the evening, infusing Kwun Tong with a joyful atmosphere and vibrant energy. The ceremony was officiated by the Guest of Honour, Ms Bernadette Linn, the Secretary for Development, in the company of URA Managing Director Ir Wai Chi-sing, Legislative Councillors Hon Tang Ka-piu and Hon Ngan Man-yu, District Officer (Kwun Tong) Mr Denny Ho, and Director of Asset Management at Sino Group Ms Bella Chhoa. Together, they activated the “power device” symbolising “vitality”, with sparkling lights connecting luminou