Last week, I said that the Government has implemented a series of measures to facilitate the redevelopment and wholesale conversion of old industrial buildings to provide more floor space for suitable uses and to meet the changing social and economic needs of Hong Kong. This is one of the measures in our multi-pronged approach. The Chief Executive has also put forward a series of initiatives in his Policy Address to ensure stable and adequate supply of industrial and commercial land and facilities so as to maintain Hong Kong’s position as a world-class financial and commercial centre in Asia, promote the development of various industries, support continuous economic growth, and provide better opportunities for our people to get a job or start a business.
A progress update of these measures is as follows:
(A) Energizing Kowloon East
Kowloon East, comprising the Kai Tak Development (KTD) Area, Kwun Tong and Kowloon Bay Business Area, will be developed as another core business district (CBD) of Hong Kong. Currently, there are about 1.4 million square metres of office floor area in Kowloon East. By transforming the area into a CBD, it has the potential to provide an additional 4 million square metres of office floor area, double the office space currently available in Central. To expedite the transformation of the district, we are exploring ways to relocate the existing government facilities in the two Action Areas and put some of the suitable vacant sites up for sale as soon as possible. We expect that these measures will provide about 500,000 square metres of floor area in total.
(B) New Central Harbourfront
Under the long-term planning for the New Central Harbourfront, we expect that over 260,000 square metres of floor area for commercial uses can be provided, including some 150,000 square metres of new floor area for office and retail uses at Site 3. The plan will commence upon the completion of the relevant infrastructure works and relocation of existing facilities in Central and Wan Chai.
(C) Relocating government offices and rezoning “Government, Institution or Community” (GIC) sites
Government buildings currently located in CBD areas will be relocated or reprovisioned wherever possible. The land involved will be changed to commercial use to increase market supply. For example, some 4,000 square metres of office space were made available to the market following the sale of the government-owned properties in Citibank Tower. The relocation of the Trade and Industry Tower in Mong Kok will release over 18,000 square metres of floor area for commercial uses. The relocation of the Department of Justice to the former Central Government Offices will provide space for other government offices currently occupying leased premises in Central and Admiralty. The reprovisioning by stages of the three government office buildings at the Wan Chai waterfront will not only release office floor area that can be rented out quickly, but also facilitate the sale of the three buildings at the right time. It is expected that 175,000 square metres of floor area can be made available for commercial uses.
Meanwhile, we also plan to convert suitable GIC sites in the existing CBDs to commercial uses, such as the two car parks at Murray Road in Central and Rumsey Street in Sheung Wan.
We will continue to review the usage of government buildings in other districts. If the government accommodation policy permits, we will reprovision suitable government offices and relocate those occupying leased premises to government-owned properties as far as possible, with a view to releasing those premises for commercial uses.
(D) North Commercial District on Airport Island
The Hong Kong International Airport is vital to Hong Kong’s economic development. To better utilise the limited land on the Airport Island, the Airport Authority is carrying out a study on the development strategies for the North Commercial District of the airport. We expect the specific planning work to be completed at the end of this year.
(E) Tung Chung New Town
With a number of major infrastructure projects including the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities, the Hong Kong Link Road and the Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok Link to be completed soon, Tung Chung, thanks to its strategic location, has the potential to be developed as an attractive commercial and tourism hub in the region and bring more job opportunities to the local community. Therefore, during the Stage 2 Public Engagement for the Tung Chung New Town Extension Study, we have proposed to reserve 7 to 15 hectares of land in Tung Chung East and 2 hectares of land in Tung Chung West for commercial uses.
(F) New Development Areas (NDAs)
The NDAs are one of the major sources of land supply for Hong Kong in the medium to long term. Taking into account their geographical locations, we will provide suitable land for economic and industrial development. For example, there are totally 22 hectares of such land in the North East New Territories, including 14 hectares of “commercial, research and development” sites along the Fanling Highway in Kwu Tong North. These sites have the potential to be developed for various types of offices and research and development uses. Meanwhile, 8 hectares of land in the north-western part of Kwu Tong North are earmarked for “research and development” uses.
About 72 hectares of land in the Hung Shui Kiu NDAs were reserved for “Special Industrial Use”, that is, to set up a Logistics and Technology Quarter for logistics, testing and certification, information technology (including data centres) and telecommunications industries as well as business uses. The area near the proposed West Rail Hung Shui Kiu Station will also be developed as a regional commercial and business hub with a large shopping arcade, offices, hotels, shops and service outlets.
(G) New Territories North
There are tracts of undeveloped land in New Territories North, including land released from the Frontier Closed Areas, and many of them have development potential, such as the sites near major transport routes or boundary control points. These sites can be used for purposes which can create employment opportunities and we will commence a preliminary feasibility study next year.
(H) Reclamation, cavern and underground space development
Reclamation outside Victoria Harbour and rock cavern development is one of the long-term sources of land supply. We are now collating the public views collected after the completion of the Stage 2 Public Engagement and will start technical studies and land use planning later on to provide more sites for housing and commercial development. Separately, we are now preparing for the study of underground space development in the urban areas of Hong Kong to provide more space for commercial purposes and other uses.
All the above-mentioned measures are for the medium- and long-term land supply. To ease the shortage of industrial and commercial land and facilities in the short term, we have implemented measures for the revitalisation of industrial buildings, as I mentioned last week. As at the end of October, the Lands Department has received 115 applications in total and approved 82 of them. These projects can provide 880,000 square metres of converted or new floor areas in total for non-industrial uses.
Moreover, we will also raise the development density appropriately to increase commercial floor areas as one of the initiatives to increase supply. For example, we have completed the preliminary technical assessment of increasing the development density in the KTD Area and proposed to appropriately increase the plot ratio for the housing and commercial sites in that district by about 20 per cent.
In fact, for the past two financial years, nine commercial/business sites were sold, providing about 400,000 square metres of floor area in total. In the first three quarters of 2013-14, we have sold or are going to sell three commercial/business sites which can provide a total of about 130,000 square metres of floor area. In the future, we will continue to provide commercial/business sites for the market.
17 November, 2013
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