Five residents who are among the last seven refusing to leave an ageing private housing estate in Hong Kong have lost a legal bid against their evictions, after a judge found they had never enjoyed a permanent right to property at the city’s only privately owned low-rent development.

The District Court on Thursday handed down the first judgment of two civil trials implicating a total of seven Tai Hang Sai Estate tenants, who refused to move out of the Shek Kip Mei compound and give way for its redevelopment.

The landlord, the non-profit Hong Kong Settlers Housing Corporation, said it welcomed the judgment, as it took “illegal occupants” to task once again over what it saw as an attempt to stall the project and achieve their “unreasonable objectives”.

The corporation, affiliated with property giant Henderson Land Development, received the green light from town planning authorities in 2016 to redevelop the site, which was built in 1965, with an eighth block added in 1977.

Under the redevelopment plan, 2,000 flats are to be offered to first-time homebuyers and another 1,300 for the return of existing tenants.

But the arrangements for tenants came under the spotlight after the corporation said it would only relocate tenants who passed an income and asset threshold. Those deemed ineligible, such as families who owned residential properties, would be offered a lump sum to leave.