Private housing estate is a term used in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

for private mass housing—a

housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision (land), subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to count ...

built by a private developer, as opposed to a

public housing estate Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

built by the

Hong Kong Housing Authority The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) is the main provider of public housing in Hong Kong. It was established in April 1973 under the Housing Ordinance and is an government agency, agency of the Government of Hong Kong. In the same year, the R ...

or the

Hong Kong Housing Society The Hong Kong Housing Society, or Housing Society for short, is the second largest public housing provider in Hong Kong (the first being the Hong Kong Housing Authority). The Society housed around 130,000 residents as of 2020. The Housing Soci ...

. It is usually characterised by a cluster of high-rise buildings, with its own market or shopping mall.

Mei Foo Sun Chuen Mei Foo Sun Chuen or simply Mei Foo is a large private housing estate in Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Mei Foo Sun Chuen was the first large scale private housing estate in Hong Kong and at the time of completion, the 99-tower complex ...

, built by

Mobil Mobil Oil Corporation, now known as just Mobil, is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, formerly known as Exxon, which took its current name after history of ExxonMobil#merger, it and Mobil merge ...

, is the earliest (1965) and largest by number of blocks (99). Early real estate development in Hong Kong followed the urban street pattern: single blocks packed along streets, most managed independently, with quality varying from block to block. Private housing estates, on the other hand, provide integrated management throughout the whole estate, attracting more affluent residents.

Taikoo Shing Taikoo Shing or Tai Koo Shing (), is a private residential development in Quarry Bay, in the eastern part of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is a part of Swire's property business, along with Taikoo Place, the adjacent Cityplaza retail and off ...

Whampoa Garden Whampoa Garden () is the largest private housing estate in Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was built on the site of the former Whampoa Dockyards by Hutchison Whampoa Property. The urban design of the estate incorporates concepts inspired by ...

, and City One Shatin are early notable examples. More projects followed, and the idea became widely accepted as the middle class of Hong Kong emerged.

Wall effect

There has been controversy over the "wall effect" ( zh, t=屏風樓, literally "

folding screen A folding screen, also known as pingfeng (), is a type of free-standing furniture consisting of several frames or panels, which are often connected by hinges or by other means. They have practical and decorative uses, and can be made in a variet ...

building") caused by uniform high-rise developments that adversely impact air circulation, leading to an aggravation of the urban heat effect while also impacting public hygiene and contributing to air pollution. In 2006, the environmental group Green Sense has expressed concern that their survey on 155 housing estates found 104 have a "wall-like' design". It cited estates in

Tai Kok Tsui Tai Kok Tsui is an area west of Mong Kok in Yau Tsim Mong District, Yau Tsim Mong district in the Kowloon region of Hong Kong. The mixed land use of industrial and residential is present in the old area. The Cosmopolitan Dock and oil depots we ...

and

Tseung Kwan O Tseung Kwan O New Town, commonly known as Tseung Kwan O ( zh, t=將軍澳新市鎮, j=Zoeng1 gwan1 ou3 san1 si5 zan3), is one of the nine New towns of Hong Kong, new towns in Hong Kong, built mainly on Land reclamation in Hong Kong, reclaimed ...

as the "best examples". Then-head of the

planning department Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

, Ava Ng, argued that the air ventilation factor had been taken into consideration with regard to the auction of all prime sites on the land application list, and mentioned that the erection of tall buildings at these sites would not create any "wall effect".Carol Chung
'Wall effect' argument rejected
, The Standard, 17 April 2007 In May 2007, citing concern over developments in

West Kowloon West Kowloon (), named after West Kowloon Reclamation Project as a part of Airport Core Programme, is the western part of Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong, situated within the Yau Tsim Mong District and Sham Shui Po District. The Land reclam ...

, and near

Tai Wai Tai Wai (Chinese: 大圍 ) is an area in the New Territories, Hong Kong, located between Sha Tin and the Lion Rock, within the Sha Tin District. With three rapid transit stations, one of which an interchange station serving two lines, fiv ...

and

Yuen Long Yuen Long is a town in the western New Territories, Hong Kong. To its west lie Hung Shui Kiu (), Tin Shui Wai, Lau Fau Shan and Ha Tsuen, to the south Shap Pat Heung and Tai Tong, to the east Au Tau and Kam Tin (), and to the north Nam Sang Wa ...

railway stations,

Wong Kwok-hing Wong Kwok-hing BBS MH (, Vietnamese : ''Vương Quốc Hưng'' ; born 29 March 1949, Haiphong, North Vietnam) is a Hong Kong trade unionist and a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, representing the New Territories West co ...

, of the

Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) is a pro-Beijing labour and political group established in 1948 in Hong Kong. It is the oldest and largest labour group in Hong Kong with over 420,000 members in 253 affiliates and associated ...

, put forward a motion calling for measures to reduce screen-like buildings that maximise good views at the expense of air flow in densely populated areas. The motion was vetoed by

functional constituency A functional constituency is an electoral device (a non-geographical constituency) used within the political systems of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China: * Functional constituency in Hong Kong * Indirectly el ...

representatives.Olga Wong,
Call for law against 'wall effect' fails
,

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remaine ...

, 10 May 2007

Lists of estates

The following is a partial list of private housing estates in Hong Kong:

Hong Kong Island

Kowloon

Kwai Tsing District

Sai Kung District

Sha Tin District

Tsuen Wan District

Sham Tseng

Tuen Mun District

So Kwun Wat

Yuen Long District

References

{{Housing in Hong Kong Apartment buildings in Hong Kong Hong Kong, Private Real estate in Hong Kong