22/08/2025
Hong Kong has a severe shortage of urn space, resulting in long waiting list in government provisions and sky-high prices for private options. Urn space facility construction is an extremely profitable business. A private urn space could cost as high as over HK$300K while its construction cost is only less than HK$10K. However, not everybody is equipped to do such kind of business because of the vigorous competition that very often involves triads/gangs/mafia interventions. Getting a licence is difficult too. Alternatively, you need to be an established religious institution having an old history of urn space provision.
More than ten years ago we were approached by somebody to do a design proposal for such a facility in an abandoned Buddhist nunnery in Tai Po. The facility was built in 1854 with a massive number of existing urn space occupied and coffins all without attendance for many years. A lot of restoration works were needed. It was an interesting experience because the place was known for its haunting stories. But midway through the design process we were told to stop because there was a problem with the licence application. What a pity!😅
