Hong Kong’s Urban Renewal Authority (URA) has said it will redevelop more than 1,400 dilapidated flats in an older district, some eight years after the plan was first proposed, with the body revealing it may also allow some building owners to participate in the project.

The authority on Friday announced it would go ahead with the HK$10 billion (US$1.3 billion) scheme to build 2,230 flats by 2033 in part of To Kwa Wan, consisting of a site dubbed “5 Streets” and two industrial buildings in the district.

The project, featuring a 20-metre (66 feet) wide water promenade and a shopping centre with on-street dining and shops, involves the “5 Streets” area which covers five individual streets comprising around 100 old and run-down buildings without lifts.

A total of 1,410 households and 100 ground-floor shops on Ma Tau Kok Road, Ming Lun Street, Chung Sun Street, Hing Yin Street and Hing Yan Street will be affected by the plan.

“I am so happy. These are dangerous buildings and they are unliveable,” one resident surnamed Ng said, adding she had urged authorities to redevelop the homes for a decade. “We have a water drainage problem and we can only take a three minute shower or else water will flood out.”

She said private developers had failed twice to acquire enough ownership of the area for redevelopment.

Ng revealed she had to place a wooden ceiling in her home to prevent the concrete from breaking off, but the board started to fall apart due to a water leakage.

An 81-year-old resident said parts of her flat’s ceiling had exposed steel bars and water would leak into her home during heavy rain.

“Water leaks from the windows, and I have to use thick blankets to fill the gaps. I can only sleep in the corner of my living room,” Tong said.

A resident surnamed Tong points at the damaged ceiling in her flat.

Proposals to redevelop “5 Streets” and the nearby “13 Streets”, consisting of hundreds of old buildings across 13 parallel streets, were submitted to the authority in 2014.

The plans were formed after a public consultation organised by the now-defunct District Urban Renewal Forum for the first time to draft redevelopment and conservation proposals for the district with local residents.

But the authority did not provide a time frame for the redevelopment plan until the announcement on Friday and no update was given on the renewal of “13 Streets”.

“[The water promenade and plaza] can actually connect the old urban areas with the waterfront and provide a lot of amenities, areas and visual and ventilation benefits to the community,” the authority’s general manager Lawrence Mak Chung-kit said.

While residents welcomed the long-awaited renewal plan, a 50-year-old ground floor store owner surnamed Tang said the future of her food machinery company was uncertain.

Exposed ceilings in a flat in To Kwa Wan.

“I bought this place four years ago as my previous store was acquired under another redevelopment project in the district,” she said. “Even though I will be compensated, I may not be able to find another place with a tall floor-to-ceiling height, and the selling price may soar,” Tang said, adding that she hoped the compensation would amount to HK$15 million.

Under the authority’s existing compensation arrangement, owners will receive the cash equivalent to the market price of a seven-year-old flat in the same district, while owners of commercial units will be given the market value amount and an allowance for operations.

Authorities have also identified a total of 110 units in two industrial blocks in Newport Centre located in To Kwa Wan, which counts construction, electronic appliances and logistics companies among its tenants.

The body said this was its third attempt to redevelop the blocks and it was exploring a new approach to allow owners or private developers with certain ownership to participate in the redevelopment project, but details had not been finalised yet.

“[In previous schemes,] we were facing [difficulties like] some owners held many [properties], and they were not willing to sell them to the URA,” Kelvin Chung Kin-keung, the authority’s general manager for acquisition and clearance, said. “We hope that this project can succeed.”

An owner of a 2,000 sq ft unit in the industrial building said the redevelopment plan was unexpected.

“It’s not that I don’t want redevelopment, but we have built up attachment to this place since we started business here more than 30 years ago. If the compensation is sufficient, we hope to rent another office and continue our operation to keep the jobs of my staff,” said the owner, who wished to remain anonymous.

Ming Lun Street and To Kwa Wan Road are part of the redevelopment plan.

Chan Kim-ching, a member of the Liber Research Community, a civic group that focuses on housing and land issues, said the proposed plan might only benefit the major shareholders of the industrial buildings and it would be unfair to small owners.

“It seems that only large developers will enjoy the privilege and benefits of the future development, while small owners can only get the compensation,” Chan said, adding the authority should consult the public before implementing the development model.