The fire that tore through Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po nearly a year ago killed 168 people and displaced more than 4,600 residents, yet the battle over the estate’s future remains locked in a tense standoff between the government and a minority of homeowners. As of mid-October, over 93 per cent of Wang Fuk Court homeowners had signed formal sales agreements to sell their flats to the government under a buyout scheme, hongkongfp.com reported. But the remaining holdouts refuse to budge, and their resistance has drawn a sharp constitutional warning from Anthony Cheung, the former secretary for transport and housing who once shaped the city’s housing policy.
In an op-ed published in Ming Pao on Wednesday, Cheung argued that the government’s threat to use specialised legislation to compulsorily acquire flats from owners who have rejected the buyout offer would clash directly with the Basic Law’s protection of private property rights. The government cannot expropriate private assets, he wrote, without a clear “public interest” justification or a legitimate public purpose. Passing special legislation to authorise compulsory acquisition, Cheung cautioned, would easily stoke fears of setting a precedent for government expropriation of private property, and must be handled with extreme prudence as it risks facing judicial reviews that could drag on indefinitely.
Ninety-Three Percent Signed. The Rest Want Proof
The government has said it could resort to legal means for those who did not sign. Yet the holdouts are not merely resisting; they are waiting for evidence that their homes are truly beyond repair. The Housing Bureau has yet to release the structural inspection report of the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court, leaving the true extent of the damage unclear, Cheung said. Some residents, including some who have rejected the buyout proposal, have expressed doubts that their homes are not salvageable. “A sceptical minority of owners remain locked in disputes with the government,” Cheung wrote, insisting that “the structural inspection report should be published as soon as possible to dispel public doubts.”
The blaze broke out on November 26, 2025, engulfing seven buildings in the government-subsidised estate during large-scale renovation works. The scale of the catastrophe—168 dead, more than 4,600 displaced—makes the current impasse over property rights and structural safety particularly acute almost a year after the flames were extinguished.
When Bureaucracy Meets “Banality of Evil”
Cheung’s op-ed also turned to the independent probe committee’s final report, which was submitted to the government last week. The report highlighted what Cheung calls “dual institutional failures”: the government failed to detect wrongdoing during the renovation works, while private sector gatekeepers failed to do their duty. Cheung described a “banality of evil” within the bureaucracy, characterised by superficial inspections and departments passing the buck. He pointed to a “collapse of professional integrity and fraudulent neglect of duty,” where professional certification and third-party gatekeepers were reduced to “mere rubber-stamp exercises.”
On the government’s proposed reforms, Cheung argued that “genuine transformation” was needed in organisational culture “to avoid putting old wine into new bottles”—a concern that lawmakers had voiced after city leader John Lee announced the reform package.
Who Resigns, and Who Stays?
Former housing minister Winnie Ho resigned after leading the Housing Bureau, which oversaw the disgraced Independent Checking Unit. The probe committee report also said that the Fire Services Department, the Buildings Department, and the Labour Department bore a share of the responsibility for the fire. Yet naturally, the public questions why other bureau directors who also oversee implicated departments have remained in office. While Chief Executive John Lee’s explanation that this was a “political decision” may not entirely lay the public’s doubts to rest, Cheung wrote, “such is life.”
On October 29, Lee and other top officials bowed in apology over the deadly 2025 Wang Fuk Court blaze. But with the structural inspection report still withheld and the buyout disputes unresolved, the estate’s future remains uncertain. Whether releasing that report will finally clear the doubts of the remaining holdouts—or merely deepen the dispute—remains the open question hanging over Tai Po.
