Over 93% of Wang Fuk Court homeowners sign sales agreement for gov’t buyback scheme

Over 93 per cent of Wang Fuk Court homeowners have signed a formal sales agreement to sell their flats to the government as part of a buyout scheme following the deadly fire almost a year ago.

A total of 1,850 homeowners from the Tai Po estate have completed the Agreement for Sale and Purchase (ASP), the government said on Friday.

Some were unable to sign in time as they needed time to handle their property titles due to issues such as bankruptcy and not being in Hong Kong. Authorities said they would make arrangements for them on a case-by-case basis.

Thursday was the deadline for signing the agreement, which is the second and final step of the buyout scheme.

The scheme involves Wang Fuk Court homeowners selling their flats to the government in return for a cash payment or a new flat in another government-subsidised estate.

Flat-for-flat exchange

Ninety-nine per cent of homeowners, or 1,971, completed the first step by signing a letter of acceptance agreeing to sell their flats. Thirteen households did not sign.

Some homeowners had expressed reluctance to sign, feeling that the government had not engaged them in proper dialogue or insisting that authorities should rebuild the estate on its original site.

It is unclear how the government will handle cases in which the homeowners did not participate in the buyback offer.

Authorities said earlier that they are not ruling out using “legislative means” to acquire the remaining unsold units in the future.

Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong has said that if the government were to handle unsold titles by law, compensation would be “substantially lower” than the buyout offer that expired on August 31.

Among those who signed the acceptance letter, around 1,700 chose to receive a new flat under the Special Sales Exercise. The options include 10 development projects in districts such as Kowloon Bay, Tseung Kwan O, Tai Po and Kwun Tong, with the government saying it had reserved 4,400 flats in total.

Flat selection began late last month for the first batch of applications from around 35 households.

Safeguard press freedom; keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team

Support HKFP  |  Policies & Ethics  |  Error/typo?  |  Contact  |  Newsletter  | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps

Make a one-off donation.

Hillary Leung is a journalist at Hong Kong Free Press, where she reports on local politics and social issues, and assists with editing. Since joining in late 2021, she has covered the Covid-19 pandemic, political court cases including the 47 democrats national security trial, and challenges faced by minority communities.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Hillary completed her undergraduate degree in journalism and sociology at the University of Hong Kong. She worked at TIME Magazine in 2019, where she wrote about Asia and overnight US news before turning her focus to the protests that began that summer. At Coconuts Hong Kong, she covered general news and wrote features, including about a Black Lives Matter march that drew controversy amid the local pro-democracy movement and two sisters who were born to a domestic worker and lived undocumented for 30 years in Hong Kong.