Land swaps open up in Northern Metropolis

Stacy Shi

More private land owners are to be allowed to exchange sites in Northern Metropolis.

Currently, site owners in the Kwu Tung North/Fan Ling North and Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen New Development Areas are allowed for exchanges under certain conditions. But such arrangements only apply to private residential and commercial sites.

Officials revealed yesterday the scope of exchanges will be broadened to sites for industries and privately run communities or welfare facilities.

"On the premise of maintaining government-led development and safeguarding the interests of affected households, the revised arrangements could expedite the implementation of Northern Metropolis and facilitate better development layouts by leveraging market forces," a Development Bureau spokesman said.

To provide an additional option to eligible land occupants, including households affected by land exchanges, applicants will be able to opt for the compensation and rehousing arrangement.

In addition, if an applicant owns no less than 90 percent of private land within a designated development site or a minimum of 4,000 square meters of a residential site the government may resume the remaining third-party land for granting it to the applicant for developing the whole site.

Under this arrangement an applicant will be required to pay the full market premium for a development site including the minority third-party land and construct public facilities.

The revised arrangements will not only allow landowners to participate more deeply in the development of Northern Metropolis but also help reduce upfront spending on land resumption while allowing the government to receive the premium revenue earlier.

For example, the delivery of private developments through land exchange may be faster than government resuming the land by tendering it out.

This is because the government always adopts a phased implementation approach for large-scale developments and prioritizes public housing and basic infrastructure projects instead of individual private development.

"A private residential project with thousands of units in Fan Ling North was completed at the end of last year - five years after the land exchange application was approved in 2017 - while another private residential project on a site resumed by the government in 2019 would not be finished until 2026-27," the spokesman said.

Separately, the government also extended the arrangement for charging land premium at standard rates to industrial buildings constructed before 1987 to cover those for special industrial use to release the land potential and expedite land and housing supply.

Separate standard rates for special industrial buildings, such as clothing or food production factories, will be set at 70 percent of those of general industrial buildings to reflect the land value.

The new standard rates will be effective on April 1, 2024.

The government also announced a pilot scheme involving standardizing premium rates for agricultural land in the New Territories outside new development areas to save the need for lengthy negotiations.

The first phase of the scheme will cover new town areas within Yuen Long, North and Tuen Mun as well as areas in the vicinity of existing or proposed railway stations.

The Lands Department will set the standard rates for different zones and different uses before and after lease modification.

The level of the rates will be reviewed annually.

stacy.shi@singtaonewscorp.com