Hong Kong leader vows ‘severe’ punishment following string of construction scandals

Hong Kong’s leader has vowed thorough investigations and “severe” punishment following a string of construction scandals in the city, the latest involving suspected corner-cutting at a HK$115 million waterfront luxury house in Stanley.

Chief Executive John Lee said on Tuesday that authorities are investigating whether construction quality at the One Stanley residential project in the Southern district meets safety standards and whether site supervision was properly conducted.

“At this stage, as the investigation is actively ongoing, I will not comment on its details. But I must stress that I attach great importance to the construction quality of building works in Hong Kong,” Lee told reporters ahead of a meeting with the Executive Council, the city’s top policy-making body.

“I am also concerned as to whether the professionals involved in the works have discharged their duties of supervision properly, and whether the contractor has carried out the works in breach of requirement,” he said.

One Stanley case

Online media outlet Wuchatprop broke the story last Friday that a man discovered suspected shortened steel bars when renovating his ocean-view villa at One Stanley, which he bought in April 2024 for HK$115 million.

One Stanley is developed by K&K Property and offers 82 units, with some having a saleable area of over 7,000 square feet. As of this month, there have been 57 transactions at the upmarket housing complex, according to data from Centaline Property.

The Buildings Department said in a statement on Saturday that it had issued an occupation permit for the house in July 2023 and received a report in January this year from the owner regarding structural safety issues.

The department conducted several rounds of inspections and tests between June and September and found that “the concrete cover of one of the beams at the ground floor is not installed with wire mesh as required by the approved plan, and the steel reinforcement of some slabs deviated from the approved plan,” according to the statement.

While the situation does not pose “obvious danger,” the quality of works at that One Stanley house warranted further investigation, the department said.

K&K Property said it was “highly concerned” about the incident and will cooperate fully with the Buildings Deparment’s investigation.

Lee said on Tuesday that he has asked the Development Bureau to monitor the investigation and review the construction work standards in the city “as a whole,” and to introduce tighter rules and heavier penalties for violations.

That would “ensure strong deterrence and to severely punish those involved in any violations,” Lee said.

The Development Bureau is expected to submit to the Legislative Council proposals regarding amendments to the Buildings Ordinance within this year. Lee said the proposals would strengthen regulation and raise penalties for malpractice and substandard work.

The One Stanley saga followed other high-profile construction scandals in the city recently, raising concerns regarding building quality and the effectiveness of government oversight.

Last month, faulty lift works in a redeveloped building at Queen Mary Hospital resulted in tilted elevator shafts, which required major repairs and delayed the full reopening of a clinical block. An investigation is under way.

Separately, authorities discovered that concrete used in three blocks at a public housing construction site in Tung Chung’s Area 42 failed to meet hardness standards. The concrete supplier has since been replaced.

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Hans Tse is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press with an interest in local politics, academia, and media transformation. He was previously a social science researcher, with writing published in the Social Movement Studies and Social Transformation of Chinese Societies journals. He holds an M.Phil in communication from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Before joining HKFP, he also worked as a freelance reporter for Initium between 2019 and 2021, where he covered the height - and aftermath - of the 2019 protests, as well as the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.