Beneath the appearance of state-led gentrification: The case of the Kwun Tong Town Centre redevelopment in Hong Kong

The global reach of gentrification has been widely debated. Through a case study of the Kwun Tong Town Centre (KTTC) project, this research investigates whether redevelopment led by the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) in Hong Kong constitutes a form of state-led gentrification. Against the notion of generic gentrification, we argue that an urban process becomes gentrification only when the conceptual assumptions are consistent with contextual realities. Through a literature review, two core assumptions about state-led gentrification were identified: 1) the redevelopment is capital-led and against the community’s will, and 2) the logic of capital has overridden the logic of the government during the redevelopment. Despite the appearance of state-led gentrification, the KTTC redevelopment was a state-led while socially-oriented process supported by the local community. This project was undertaken to redress environmental deterioration and building obsolesce in a crowded and old urban area. Government-led planning was necessary because the project required government land, proactive planning, and public subsidies. Local support was conditioned on a societal consensus on the policy governing acquisition and compensation. The scheme design reflected a commitment to social goals and community aspiration. The URA endeavoured to address residents’ housing needs by directly engaging residents in the acquisition process. The authority leveraged private-sector capital to take forward redevelopment, but retained control over the project through a plan-led approach and a profit-sharing formula. The negative outcomes of displacement were mitigated by the authority and other contextual factors. The government’s ongoing commitment to public housing limited the chance of area-wide gentrification. Whilst not negating the problem of displacement, this article advocates for a grounded perspective to understand the cause and effect of a gentrification-like process. It further calls for research on similar projects to support the development of generalisable counter-gentrification agendas.