25th October 2026 – (Hong Kong) Owners at Wong Tai Sin’s Fung Tak Estate have overwhelmingly chosen Mitsubishi Elevator Hong Kong Limited to replace the estate’s lifts, sidelining scandal-hit Taizoom Elevator after the Urban Renewal Authority warned that picking the firm would kill subsidy support — even as a circulated Taizoom notice admitted “temporary negligence” and weak supervision while insisting its machines remain safe.
The owners’ corporation of the Tenants Purchase Scheme estate met this afternoon from about 1pm to pick a contractor for the renewal works. Nine firms had bid, with total prices running from a little over HK$26 million to more than HK$36 million. Taizoom’s bid of HK$26.58 million was second-cheapest, only HK$56,000 above Schindler Lifts (Hong Kong) Limited, the incumbent. Mitsubishi came third-lowest at HK$28.69 million. Staff announced before the vote that the corporation chairman would stay out of the chair because of lift-related business interests.
URA representatives told the meeting more than once that Taizoom’s lifts had quality problems and were under investigation, and that if residents chose the company they would not receive funding under the authority’s Lift Modernisation Subsidy Scheme. Reference papers from the corporation also carried an Electrical and Mechanical Services Department note that Taizoom’s performance rating was being withheld because EMSD had found serious failures in its lift-replacement work. The Housing Authority, which holds about 12 per cent of Fung Tak’s ownership shares, sent staff to attend and vote.
When ballots closed, Mitsubishi took 55,302 ownership shares — a 93.71 per cent share of the vote — and the HK$28.69 million contract. Because only Mitsubishi cleared 12 per cent, the Authority is widely assumed to have backed it too. Taizoom scraped just 78 shares, or 0.13 per cent. Schindler managed 582 shares, or 0.99 per cent.
Owner Miss Lee said she came in person because she feared the Authority might back Taizoom or Schindler. She was already unhappy with Schindler after some lifts failed again two weeks after works; she preferred Mitsubishi for reputation, guarantees and a relatively keen price. Miss Yeung, who also voted Mitsubishi, cited EMSD’s five-star full mark for the Japanese firm and called the price reasonable. She said she could not understand how Taizoom still drew 78 shares, guessing “elderly owners may not have understood”.
The vote landed against the backdrop of Taizoom’s citywide fire-door-frame scandal. The firm had replaced 48 lifts at Tsui Ping (North) Estate in Kwun Tong and Pok Hong Estate in Sha Tin without installing fire-resistant door-frame components; EMSD later found the same omission in lifts at 338 private buildings it served. A notice circulating online, addressed to building managers, said management and the factory had reviewed missing parts caused by “temporary negligence of the installation team and inadequate supervision by relevant supervisors”. The factory would produce the missing components, fitters would install them on arrival, and lifts would return to service after EMSD confirmation. Taizoom stressed the lifts were “absolutely safe” and operating normally, claimed solid finances and enough staff to finish the remedial work. Comment was being sought on the notice’s authenticity and wording.
Ir Louis Szeto Ka-shing, former chairman of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers’ mechanical, marine, naval architecture and chemical division, has previously explained that fire-door frames fix the fire door in place; without them the door can shift and smoke-stopping performance fails in a blaze — the safety gap that made Fung Tak’s ballot a referendum on trust as much as on price.