Hong Kong needs tougher inspection regime, experts say after CK Asset building fiasco

Lawmakers and engineering sector leaders have called for a review of Hong Kong’s building inspection mechanism and a blacklist to bar errant contractors from government tenders, after Hong Kong’s first privately built “starter homes” project hit a snag over shoddy steel work.

The government should review the inspection regime and increase its supervisory manpower, lawmakers and engineers said on Friday, calling for inspectors to be stationed at construction sites of private-sector-built subsidised public housing estates rather than relying on spot checks.

The call came after the Buildings Department said on Thursday it had approved property developer CK Asset Holding’s plan to tear down and rebuild three of the six blocks at the Anderson Road development in Kwun Tong, with remedial work continuing on the rest.

Earlier investigations found the steel reinforcement in parts of the towers diverged significantly from approved plans, with fewer reinforcement bars used than required.

Engineering sector lawmaker Aaron Bok Kwok-ming said on Friday that any violation of construction standards should be punished and prosecuted, while stressing that such cases remained rare.

“Hong Kong carries out some HK$250 billion of construction work every year, and cases like this remain a small minority,” he told media.

“But the government should review whether the level of supervision needs strengthening and allocate more resources and staff to engineering teams, as that cost is only a very small portion of the overall project.”

CK Asset said the remedial proposals it submitted to the government were too “time-consuming” after an engineering consultant spent nearly two years investigating the three buildings in question and came up with the planned solutions.

Bok said demolition was an extreme step rarely taken in the industry, as building designs incorporated substantial safety margins and redundancy that allowed localised defects to be fixed through minor strengthening works.

Bok added that whether the project would remain profitable after demolition was for the developer to assess, but he doubted that the margins were large enough to absorb such a cost.

The Anderson Road development is a “starter homes” project, under which the government invited private tenders to help first-time buyers ineligible for subsidised flats under the Home Ownership Scheme.

The project comprises about 2,930 flats, at least 1,000 of which are to be sold at 80 per cent of market price to Hongkongers who have never owned residential property and meet income and asset limits.

Construction was halted in October 2024 after the steel reinforcement discrepancies came to light.

The city’s corruption watchdog said in May last year that 10 people had been arrested over the case for alleged bribery, conspiracy to defraud and use of false documents. Some of the suspects were related to the project’s former main contractors, Aggressive Construction Engineering, and Superb Interior Contracting, the South China Morning Post learned earlier.

CK Asset named China Railway Engineering (Hong Kong) as the new contractor.

The case adds to a growing list of construction quality scandals to have emerged in recent months.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu stressed the importance of building quality ahead of an Executive Council meeting earlier this week, saying the Development Bureau would table proposed amendments to the Buildings Ordinance before the end of the year to tighten regulation and stiffen penalties for malpractice and shoddy work.

Lawmaker Scott Leung Man-kwong said the case could dent confidence in the public-private partnership model, under which developers building subsidised housing largely police themselves and the government intervenes only when problems emerge.

“For subsidised housing built with private sector participation, authorities should follow the practice for public housing and station teams at construction sites to monitor work, so problems are caught during the process rather than at the spot check stage,” he said.

Leung also called for an integrity regime within the public works system, including a blacklist that would bar contractors found guilty of major violations, shoddy work or corruption from bidding on government contracts for a specified period, on top of criminal prosecution.

“Restrictions need to be tougher than they are now to strengthen deterrence and prevent such failures from happening again,” he said.