The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) was established under the Urban Renewal Authority Ordinance (URAO) in May 2001 to replace the Land Development Corporation as the statutory body to undertake, encourage, promote and facilitate the regeneration of the older urban areas of Hong Kong...

The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) was established under the Urban Renewal Authority Ordinance (URAO) in May 2001 to replace the Land Development Corporation as the statutory body to undertake, encourage, promote and facilitate the regeneration of the older urban areas of Hong Kong.

In June 2002, the Legislative Council's Finance Committee approved that the Government injected HK$10 billion to URA in five tranches over a five-year period from 2002/2003. As one of the initiatives, the URA is supported by the Government through waiver of land premia for redevelopment sites.

According to the URAO, the URA shall exercise due care and diligence in handling its finances and to be self-financing in long run.

The URA is tasked to adopt "Redevelopment" and "Rehabilitation" as its core businesses under the 2011 Urban Renewal Strategy comprising redevelopment, rehabilitation, heritage preservation and revitalisation.

Today, there are approximately 110,000 people living in poor and squalid environment. Many live in tiny cocklofts in kitchens while a typical flat of less than 47 square metres could be home to a dozen households living in small cubicles and partitioned rooms sharing only one kitchen and one bathroom. Without windows for air ventilation and air conditioning, the daytime temperature in their accommodations in summer time could reach as high as 37 degrees centigrade or more. And you could imagine the kind of plight they have to endure.

Improving the quality of life for the less fortunate people makes a dire need of urban renewal and is the top priority of the URA.

Through urban renewal initiatives, we also aim at creating high quality and vibrant urban living in Hong Kong.