Hong Kong reclaims 5,000 flats from well-off tenants with luxury cars, mainland properties

Housing director says number of flats reclaimed equivalent to medium-sized public estate, with construction price tag at about HK$5 billion

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Authorities have been looking out for expensive cars in public housing estate car parks after news reports highlighted the situation. Photo: Jelly Tse

Published: 1:20pm, 3 Aug 2024Updated: 8:57pm, 3 Aug 2024

About 5,000 Hong Kong public flats have been taken back over the past two years from “well-off tenants”, including those whose luxury cars exposed their financial situation and 12 others who own properties across the border, a housing official has revealed.

Director of Housing Rosanna Law Shuk-pui said on Saturday the number of flats reclaimed was equivalent to a medium-sized public estate, with a construction cost of about HK$5 billion (US$640 million).

“The crackdown on abuse [of public rental flats] is very meaningful and we will definitely carry on,” she told a radio programme.

Law said that while it usually took the government a few years to build a new housing estate, only a few months were needed to renovate a reclaimed flat before it could be reallocated.

There were also relatively more of those homes located in developed or urban areas, which were popular among tenants.

Authorities stepped up regulations targeting well-off public housing tenants last October after Kwong Kau, 66, the former father-in-law of slain model Abby Choi Tin-fung, was found to have owned a luxury home while buying a subsidised flat.