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1. Introduction
Urban decay has been a significant problem in many cities worldwide. Hong Kong is no exception. Back in the late 1990s, the former Land Development Corporation (LDC) estimated that over 80 hectares of land across urban areas merited priority redevelopment. The problem was brought to the political agenda by the former Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), the Honourable Tung Chee Hwa. In his 1999 Policy Address, "Out of the existing 8,500 urban buildings which are over 30 years old, some 2,200 require redevelopment or extensive repair. Another 3,900 or so also require repairs of varying scale. In ten years' time, the number of buildings over 30 years old will increase by 50 percent ... " ([32] Tung, 1999).
With the rapid urban deterioration and considerable public concern about the pace of urban renewal, the HKSAR Government has decided to redevelop some 2,000 ageing or dilapidated buildings and improve 67 hectares of old and run-down urban areas based on a 20-year urban renewal programme ([13] Housing, Planning and Lands Bureau, 2001). In May 2001, the HKSAR set up the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) to replace the LDC. Its motivation to form the URA is to speed up urban renewal. The URA operates as an independent entity. It bears more public accountability and transparency than the previous LDC. The URA has been tasked to complete 225 projects (200 new projects and 25 uncompleted projects of the LDC for redevelopment) within 20 years and the cost involved in meeting this goal is estimated at more than US$38 billion ([21] Mui and Sankaran, 2004).
Moving urban renewal forward demands participation from a diverse group of stakeholders. To expedite urban renewal in the city, the Hong Kong Government has adopted a "three-pronged" approach - initiate public sector redevelopment projects, promote property management and building rehabilitation, and encourage more private sector involvement in the process. The URA was set up as a dedicated agency to deal with the first two "prongs" through a holistic "4R" approach, namely redeveloping dilapidated buildings, rehabilitating poorly maintained buildings, revitalizing the socio-economic fabric of older districts and preserving buildings with architectural or historical significance in the URA's projects ([19] Lau, 2005). For the third prong, the Land (Compulsory...