Hong Kong’s redevelopment policy is approaching an institutional turning point. Recent government proposals – pilot schemes for additional plot ratios and cross-district plot ratio transfers – are presented as new instruments to stimulate redevelopment in ageing districts. They arise from deteriorated urban form, narrow streets, fragmented lots, inadequate public space and limited community capacity. Renewal remains an engineering concept – renovating buildings, upgrading facilities, repairing streets – that operates at the lot scale and continues the technical logic of the Urban Renewal Authority (URA). Hong Kong must establish an urban regeneration authority capable of addressing the spatial and institutional issues that cannot be solved through lot-based redevelopment.