Transit-Oriented Development and Gentrification: The Transit-induced Gentrification in Two TOD Neighborhoods in Hong Kong

Transit-oriented Development (TOD) has gained significant recognition and global adoption since its establishment in the twentieth century, confirming its crucial role in modern urban planning. TOD, according to its principles, promotes the establishment of urban places that are efficient, pedestrian-friendly, environmentally friendly, and sustainable, hence promoting innovative approaches of urban development. Recent study indicates that the implementing of TOD strategies leads to a rapid increase of land value and commercial upgrading in neighborhoods connected to transit, which in turn affects the local demographic composition. These changes exhibit obvious parallels with the mechanism of gentrification, presenting a novel concept titled Transit-induced Gentrification (TIG). Currently, most of the current study focuses the TIG in the Global North, particularly in the U.S and Europe. Nevertheless, considering to the rapid growth of TOD projects in Asian cities, several studies have observed the occurrence of the TIG phenomena under the Asia contexts. The study focuses on the research background of Hong Kong, a city famous for its metro transit and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) plan. Specifically, it studies two TOD areas in Tseung Kwan O New Town that have undergone TOD development between 2011 and 2021. To investigate TIG in neighborhood level, the thesis adopts methodologies from Dominie (2012), Mostafa et al. (2014), Chen et al. (2023), and National Association of Realtors (NAR) to examine the spatial shifts, demographic changes, and housing affordability indexes. The thesis provides an in-depth evaluation of the impact of TIG on the advancement of urban development in Hong Kong by integrating the findings.