Early Experience of Land Readjustment in Hong Kong: Case Study of the Kowloon Walled City

Since the early 2010s, sub-divided flats have been proliferating in Hong Kong—one of world’s most compact and expensive cities to live in. The growth informal housing city has long attributed shortage supply. Apart from developing new land for housing, one possible approach deal with supply constraint is speed up redevelopment old buildings centre order maximise use potential. Yet, this brings about many socio-economic issues that drive transaction costs its implementation. To get around hurdles urban redevelopment, a management technique called readjustment (LR) recommended, but never institutionalised city. Using declassified archival documents maps, article argues LR was already implemented—albeit informally—in Kong during 1960s–70s within Kowloon Walled City. With historical experience City Darkness, aim shed light on situ resettlement original site residents—very much at heart readjustment—as means bring down deep redevelopment.