In the 1960s and 1970s the government started to draw a close to the “era of
resettlement”. There appeared new public estates that provided better living
environment, with lifts, separate bathrooms and kitchens and other ancillary
facilities. These new public housings thus stood around the airport, and
quite a lot tenants were able to overlook the airport structure from above.
In the late 1970s the grass-roots sector became better off as the economy
flourished. To accommodate the need of the lower middle class, the
government launched the “Home Ownership Scheme (HOS)”, offering
them the chance to purchase public housing. Around Kai Tak, therefore,
appeared several HOS estates, which sit next to the public estates and were
generally taller.
Within the 40 years aforesaid, the old walled villages that surrounded Kai
Tak saw a frequent change of neighbours: squatter settlements, for example,
were turned first into resettlement estates and then into early public housing
estates; industrial areas, roads, railroads, new public housings, HOS
apartments, middle-class residential high-rises, logistic centres and
commercial buildings came one after the other, thronging the once tranquil
suburban Kai Tak. The uniqueness of the “new Kai Tak” and its
surrounding communities produced an equally unique cityscape where
dwellers lived shoulder to shoulder with the airport for over 40 years —
until 1998, when the world witnessed all these becoming history.