Press Releases
Year 2003
-
3 Jan 2003
URA raises $3.6b revolving credit and term loan facility
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) signed a $3.6 billion syndicated revolving credit and term loan facility with 12 international and local banks in Hong Kong today (Friday). This is the first syndicated loan facility raised by the URA since its inception in May 2001. Mr. Billy Lam, Managing Director of the URA said the facility has attracted enthusiastic response from the banking sector and was substantially oversubscribed at the general syndication stage. In view of the favourable response, the URA has decided to raise the final facility amount to $3.6 billion from $3 billion, after carefully considering its funding requirements for the next few years. Mr. Lam said that the facility would be used for financing a number of redevelopment projects as well as refinancing part of its exis
-
31 Dec 2002
URA invites proposals for Western Market
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) has requested 20 interested parties to submit detailed proposals for the management, maintenance and letting of the Western Market, a 96-year-old historic monument located in Sheung Wan, a URA spokesman said today (Tuesday). The URA aims to use the Western Market as the anchor of a revitalisation plan to regenerate the Sheung Wan district into a more vibrant area of commercial and business activities. These interested parties have responded to an invitation for Expression of Interest issued by the Authority earlier this year. The exercise involves a gross floor area of approximately 30,000 square feet at the Western Market, excluding about 9,700 square feet of the first floor which has been tenanted to a number of cloth traders. The spokesman said tha
-
12 Dec 2002
MOU signed between URA and HKHS
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) and the Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding today (Thursday) to enter into a long-term strategic partnership for the implementation of urban renewal projects. Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), HKHS will initially focus on seven projects clustered in Sham Shui Po and Shaukiwan and will undertake to implement them in line with existing policies of the URA. The MOU also states that co-operation between the two organisations may, in due course, extend to other projects. The MOU further provides that like URA, HKHS may rehabilitate or preserve buildings in a project site as well as redevelop them. Both organisations hailed the partnering as a breakthrough in expediting the work of urban renewal and bringing abou
-
29 Nov 2002
URA Unveils New Project in Western District
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) today announced the implementation of a $1,236 million redevelopment project at First Street/Second Street, Western District as part of its first five-year Corporate Plan and first-year Business Plan. A task force of some 85 staff began a three-day survey (today to Sunday) to update the occupancy records of an estimated 430 households. This is the sixth project commenced by the Authority this year. It is also among the 25 projects announced by the former Land Development Corporation in 1998, which are treated as priority projects by the URA. Outlining project details at an operation briefing for the media, Mr Stephen C.M. Ng, District Development Director of URA, said: "This project is located in one of the oldest districts in Hong Kong. It
-
21 Nov 2002
URA issues purchase offers for Reclamation Street Project
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) will issue offer letters to the owners affected by the Reclamation Street redevelopment project next Monday (25 November) to purchase their properties by private agreement. Affected owner-occupiers of domestic properties will be offered $3,111 per square foot of the saleable area. At a meeting today (21 November 2002), the URA Board agreed that acquisition offers be issued to the owners affected by the Reclamation Street project, the fifth commenced by the URA this year. The Authority estimates that about $92 million will be spent on acquiring the 24 property interests in the project. Overall, the total development cost of the project is estimated at about $220 million. The purchase offers, which are open for acceptance within 60 days, are based on t
-
18 Oct 2002
URA unveils new project in Mong Kok
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) today announced the implementation of a $220 million redevelopment project at Reclamation Street, Mong Kok as part of its first five-year Corporate Plan and first-year Business Plan. A task force of 20 staff began a three-day survey (today to Sunday) to update the occupancy records of an estimated 120 households. This is the fifth project commenced by the URA this year. In January, the Authority implemented three "early launch" projects in Sham Shui Po, Tai Kok Tsui and Wan Chai. It then launched another project in Sham Shui Po in July following the approval of its Corporate Plan and Business Plan by Government. Outlining project details at an operation briefing for the media, Mr Stephen C.M. Ng, District Development Director of URA, said: "The bu
-
10 Oct 2002
URA issues acquisition offers for Po On Road/Shun Ning Road Project
The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) issues offer letters to the owners affected by the Po On Road/Shun Ning Road redevelopment project today (10 October) to acquire their properties by private agreement. A URA spokesman said that about $170 million would be used to purchase all the 72 interests involved in this project, which affects about 200 households. A total cost of $465 million is expected for the development of the project. "The owners will have ample time to consider our offers and to accept them within the next 60 days," he said. Purchase offers of the URA are based on the Government's Home Purchase Allowance (HPA) policy that reflects the market value of a notional, seven-year-old replacement flat in a similar locality as compensation to owner-occupiers of domestic propertie
-
10 Oct 2002
Urban Renewal Authority - Press Statement
In response to press enquiries today (October 10), the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) issues the following statement: As a public body, the URA attaches great importance to good corporate governance including the need to achieve a balance between transparency and protection of confidential information, in particular sensitive commercial information. There have been many instances of confidential information leakage in recent months that seriously affected the URA's operation and, in some cases, undermined its position in on-going commercial negotiation. The problem has persisted despite the issuing of guidelines with the approval of the URA Board. Many Board members have, therefore, felt it necessary to consider an alternative proposal, which is the signing of an undertaking for protect
-
28 Sep 2002
Letter from Hong Kong
市區重建局行政總監林中麟表示，舊區老化問題嚴重，市區重建工作不能單靠政府和市區重建局。他希望市民齊心協力，改變對拆樓重建和樓宇維修的態度，一起跨越阻礙市區重建的「兩座大山」。 林中麟今日在香港電台的「香港家書」節目中解釋說：「第一座大山，是許多舊區居民對市建局所謂「派錢收樓」的做法，普遍存有過高甚至不切實際的期望，將改善居住環境的責任完全放在市建局及政府身上，而他們唯一要做的便是等市建局盡快上門派錢收購。」 林先生表示：自年初上任以來，他不斷收到舊區居民的要求，催促市建局和政府加快收購他們的舊樓。 「但是，我們始終需要面對現實，需求無限，資源有限。市建局、將來的房屋協會，加上整個政府，都不會有能力令數以萬計舊樓的業主，在未來的日子裡全部變成擁有七年樓齡的樓宇業主。」 他指出，很多市民都遠遠低估了舊區殘破問題的嚴重性和清拆重建所涉及的問題。根據政府的估計，市區內樓齡超過三十年的大廈，有九千三百幢，而且在未來十年內，更會增加一半。 他說：「假如我們要將九千三百幢大廈全部清拆重建，所需的費用會是天文數字，而搬遷居民所涉及的各項複雜問題，是整個社會無論是現在或將來都難以應付的。」 至於面前的第二座大山，林先生說是很多市民都持有一種根深蒂固的觀念，認為市區重建一定是將舊樓全部清拆，然後整個地盤重新發展。在目前經濟環境下，這種觀念是實在不切實際的。 林先生認為拆卸重建可能只是迫不得已的選擇，而不一定是最佳的選擇。 要跨越這兩座意識形態的大山，林先生認為作為業主和住客的，必須要對自己的物業和居住環境的責任有所承擔，而並非將問題全部推向市建局、政府和其他納稅人身上。 其次，我們應該放持開放態度，探索除了拆建以外其他更好的方法。 因應以上的問題，市建局的策略是提出四大方向，即所謂4R：包括原有的重建發展(Redevelopment)、加上樓宇復修(Reh
-
19 Sep 2002
Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands opens URA Information Centre
The Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen, today (Thursday) officiated at the inauguration ceremony of the Urban Renewal Authority (URA)'s Information Centre, which serves as an important communication link between the Authority and members of the public. In a welcome speech at the ceremony, the Chairman of the URA, Dr Lau Wah-sum, emphasised that the Authority was striving to build a close working relationship with various stakeholders in order to achieve the best possible results for urban renewal. The URA has been tasked to accomplish 225 projects throughout the territory in the next 20 years. But within the same time span, the number of aging buildings will increase. Dr Lau described the challenge as an upstream struggle. He said: "We know that it is absolutely