Inspections ordered at 8 more houses in Hong Kong’s One Stanley after rebar scandal

Hong Kong authorities have ordered the developer of the One Stanley luxury estate to inspect eight more houses – including one acquired by a Mongolian mining tycoon’s family – and the common area of a flat, in the wake of a scandal involving alleged substandard works at a building in the residential development.

The details of the inspection were announced in a sales brochure updated on Friday by K&K Property, the developer of the neighbourhood in southern Hong Kong, after a detached house, No 35, was alleged to be defective due to insufficient steel bars used in parts of the building.

The Buildings Department announced in early October that it would conduct random checks on buildings in the estate, after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said he had tasked the Development Bureau to closely monitor the investigation into the case.

According to the brochure, the department had spotted irregularities in the house, including the absence of wire mesh on the concrete cover of a ground-floor beam, as required by the approved plan, and deviations in the steel reinforcement of some slabs.

The department told the developer to inspect houses No 5, 8, 16, 17, 19, 32, 33 and 36, as well as the common area of a flat, Block 9.

According to a source familiar with the matter, buyers had signed provisional purchase agreements on three of the houses – No 5, 16 and 17 – but none had requested to terminate the contracts so far.

The South China Morning Post earlier reported that Tisara Holdings, whose director is Tselmuun Nyamtaishir, signed a provisional agreement in January to purchase the No 5 house.

Nyamtaishir is the president and CEO of Mongolyn Alt (MAK), a mineral conglomerate founded in 1993 by her father in Mongolia and is the largest coal exporter in the country.

She earlier told the SCMP that the block was intended to be used as the retirement residence of the group’s founders.

Land Registry records show house No 16 was sold to Supreme Harmony Limited at HK$116.8 million (US$14.9 million). The company, whose owner is a mainland Chinese national, signed the sale and purchase agreement in June this year.

House No 17 was sold for HK$118 million to an individual, who signed the document in August.

The Buildings Department declined on Friday to comment on further investigation details.

Speaking to the press on Thursday, Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho also declined to provide more details about the case, saying the investigation into No 35 by the Buildings Department was still ongoing.

Asked why the department deemed it appropriate to issue an occupation permit for the house, Linn said some problems might remain hidden to authorities.

“Sometimes, when an occupation permit is issued, there may be hidden areas that were not visible at the time,” she said.

“We will definitely make the investigation results public, act in accordance with the law, and punish offenders according to law.”

The issue first came to light after online property news outlet WuChatProp said on October 2 that an on-site inspection of the house found insufficient steel bars were used in some parts of the building, and the amount in certain areas fell short of the approved structural plan by as much as 75 per cent.

The owner, who submitted a complaint to the department in January, had lamented the government’s inaction, according to the report.

The property is a four-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot (278 square metre) detached house, which the owner reportedly bought in 2024. The price stood at HK$115.8 million, according to a transaction list obtained by the SCMP.

The problem was discovered as Hong Kong was hit with a string of construction scandals, including issues with concrete samples from three public housing blocks under construction in Tung Chung, prompting further review and testing in September.

Earlier in August, 24 of the 28 lifts in Queen Mary Hospital’s new clinical block were deemed unfit for use. The widespread installation defects delayed the full commissioning of the Pok Fu Lam hospital’s new HK$13.5 billion (US$1.7 billion) block by up to a year.

City leader Lee declined to comment on individual cases but said he was concerned as to whether the professionals involved in the projects had discharged their duties properly, adding that such matters concerned professional standards and the quality and safety of the city’s construction works.

In response to the scandal at One Stanley, K Wise, a subsidiary of K&K Property, said it would offer a six-year structural warranty to One Stanley homeowners and would also arrange free independent inspections.

It also said the owner and the developer had agreed to jointly hire an independent surveyor to determine the circumstances, while no other consensus was reached.