A “Soho” area serving quality food and beverages, a seafood zone modelled after the famous Tsukiji market in Tokyo, a night snack street and a discount corner will also be created. Online ordering services will be available and air-conditioning will be installed in the market.

“Products such as Spanish ham and organic fruit without wax coating will be sold, for example,” said Lo Bing-chung, corporate communications director of Link Asset Management, the property management arm of the Link Reit.

Ice-vending machines will also be installed in the market to help shoppers keep their newly bought seafood fresh while they go shopping or eating, and staff will help elderly residents carry their purchases from the market to neighbouring Tin Yiu Estate.

The firm said the renovation would cost “tens of millions of dollars”, but declined to give a precise figure.

Lo said his company had commissioned a survey of 1,000 people before deciding on the design of the revamped market. Stopping short of disclosing the details of the survey method, he admitted that not all interviewees were Tin Shui Wai residents and some were regular supermarket visitors who never shopped at traditional groceries. But he dismissed suggestions that upgrading the market was at the expense of serving the needs of grassroots residents in the area.

“Tin Shui Wai is no longer the poor area that we knew years ago. Many residents actually have quite high consumption power. Some have even asked us why Wagyu beef is not available in our markets … Please don’t stereotype Tin Shui Wai,” he insisted.

He also dismissed pressure groups’ complaints about rising prices at the 90 Link Reit markets as “politicised”. “It was the government’s decision to sell [the markets] to us. Please be fair to us.”

The renovated market will reopen in two phases – around Christmas this year and Lunar New Year next year.