1 URA to set Kwun Tong offer price in December
Adele Wong, The Standard, 21 October 2008

The close to 1,800 residents to be relocated as a result of the Kwun Tong town center development will be given an across-the-board offer price in December by the Urban Renewal Authority.
However, about 500 residents whose buildings are among the last to be demolished, will have the option of accepting the offer or waiting for a revised price 4 years later.

URA chief Barry Cheung Chun-yuen said that in earlier negotiations, residents had requested the same offer be made to all regardless of when they needed to be relocated.

The URA has commissioned 11 independent surveyors to come up with a suitable offer that reflects the market value of the properties.

"This is being done entirely for the benefit of the tenants," Cheung said. "If we gave different offer prices at different times in accordance with the development phases of the project, the tenants would say it was unfair."

Tenants of area five do not need to be relocated until near the end of the 12-year project, which Cheung said was one of the largest redevelopment and rehabilitation schemes the authority has undertaken.

If the entire project area was vacated at once, it would seriously disrupt operations and traffic and affect the atmosphere of the area.

"But there is no unfairness to tenants of other phases in our proposal," Cheung said. ADELE WONG