Exposing the invisible land grab by Hong Kong’s rich

[Music] this is where some of Hong Kong's wealthiest residents live the houses in this neighborhood called Flamingo Garden cost as much as 71.8 million Hong Kong dollars but an investigation by the South China Morning Post found some of these properties have been extended without authorization and encroached on government land so the boundary should be somewhere over here and you can see from here there's something beneath the gr and it's not only this luxury neighborhood where suspected unauthorized structures have been uncovered it's a problem Hong Kong has struggled with for years long before it made headlines in September 2023 after the city's worst rainstorm in a century it triggered flash floods and exposed rampant abuse of building laws at this luxurious state in titam called Red Hill Peninsula four Seaside houses here were found to have illegal additions including multiple story structures and basements landslides exposed the illegal structures triggering safety concerns that required some residents to evacuate it also sparked an inquiry that turned up similar illegal add-ons to at least 69 of the remaining 85 Coastal houses at the estate so that's when we decided to conduct our own investigation to look into just how big this problem is in the city right now we try to use the Drone to find out what's happening over there and it seems there are some tenants or some owners of the houses build a fish porn on what's supposed to be government land so we need to capture some videos and photos to show some experts We examined three luxury Estates and compared video we shot of structures there to official building plans what we found was surprising about 34s of the houses we looked at had occupied government land and around 90% appeared to have structures not mentioned in building records one of the most egregious cases we found was at this residence in Taio this house at C viw Villas appears to have additions far bigger than the house itself here's how one structural engineer reacted when we showed him this comparison it's a incredible mission right for them to complete it I'm not sure why they need they need a pla or car Castle it's not a house anymore I think there should be at least two story of building have been cons above the original ground profile but from the every photo I think uh is at least two story of semi basement the area is at least 10 times the the the building itself right so it's a incredible NY says structures like these expose a wide range of safety issues most the unauthorized building or the structure haven't got an pass for and uh approval and consent stage if the contion is not in the puet design and then itself will be have some uh structural uh instability or the slope instability may be caused in addition to safety concerns there is also the issue of fairness one house in the cvu villa estate was recently listed for sale with an asking price of 50 million Hong Kong dollars adding such unauthorized structures appears to be a common practice in highend Estates where owners can basically boost the value of their homes at a relatively low cost we spoke to a member of One NGO that focuses on land issues in Hong Kong if you send a drone uh to some of the most prestigious neighborhoods in Hong Kong and you would see the problem of legal occupation of government land and also the illegal structures is actually everywhere and the problem is so entrenched and so to the extent that you can quote is a as an endemic because it's everywhere it's so entrenched in the in the property Market especially towards the high end of the property Market Wong explained that these high-end property owners have a lot of incentive and minimal risk in having illegal add-ons done the financial incentives itself is too too high it's too large because the property prices in Hong is so high that they have all the reason and all the incentive to extend a little bit out of the boundary and build an additional bunker or a or a Exel little bit on the rooftop the risk of being prosecuted or or or be taken account uh taken accountable for is so low that they seem to have forgotten that it is an illegal act we also observed various degrees of suspected unauthorized expansion at up to 11 of the 16 houses at Villa Rosa a prestigious estate a top Red Hill at least 13 appear to have suspected unauthorized building works there's some something here on the GFF land apparently they put something there The Gardens of these houses were roughly doubled in size by extensions beyond their official Lots encroaching on government land you can see here that a steel platform was made to create a private backyard and here we found at least two narrow lower cement platforms forms estimated to be 3 m in height that extend beyond The Gardens of other houses two professionals we spoke to said the structures could possibly be bunkers a veteran surveyor told the post that structures like these if made without professional scrutiny will also eventually affect the stability of the natural slope creating a extra additional works on their own buildings we create additional loading and then uh to the buildings uh if the original buildings just decided to to with stand three Sor height if they extend to more or even more space and heavier features like the swimming pool or big tank then it would add extra weight to the building and to the original foundations H says the risk could be even more imminent because of escalating extreme weather conditions as we saw in the case of Red Hill the controversy at Red Hill after September black rainstorm resulted in authorities being accused of turning a blind eye on Hong Kong's rich and focusing only on those they considered to be easy targets Hong Kong's development Minister bernardet Lynn admits the government has in the past prioritize cracking down on illegal structures in urban areas as they pose a higher risk to Public Safety but she pledged to set up checks on more detached homes especially Seaside properties that are built on slopes we reached out to the owners including individuals and corporations of houses that we found to have suspected unauthorized additions via registered mail and emails only one responded through a legal letter claiming that the owners quote have dealt with all the works of the premises with the Buildings Department so we went to some of the offices of some of the corporate owners and here is what some of them had to say not spe fore [Music] fore what our investigation has found appears to be just the tip of the iceberg Liber research Community the NGO that focuses on land issues looked into the problem after the Red Hill Peninsula Scandal it identified at least 173 houses in various luxury residences across Hong Kong that are suspected of occupying land that do do not belong to the owners so what are the current penalties for homeowners who've been found to have broken the law by building unauthorized add-ons currently they're not likely to face any unless they fail to comply with removal orders issued by authorities failure to comply could result in a maximum fine of $200,000 Hong Kong dollars and a year in jail they can also be fined $2,000 Hong Kong dollars for each day they do not follow the removal order but critics like Brian Wong from Liber research say these wealthy homeowners have the financial resources to hire legal teams that can help them delay enforcement action sometimes for years Hong Kong authorities are currently working on a proposal to tighten building laws including ways to increase the maximum penalty for those who breach regulations lowering the threshold for prosecution of homeowners found to have illegal structures on their property and preventing them from using excuses to dodge their responsibilities to remove them but these laws are not expected to be amended until 2025 until then the government is under pressure to show it is serious about cracking down on all illegal structures in every luxury [Music] estate [Music]

Channel: South China Morning Post

Views: 1,001,123

Keywords: Hong Kong housing, government, luxury home, rich, unauthorised structures

Id: HSCm3k79fmw

Length: 11min 40sec (700 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 05 2024