Kai Tak front and center of land sales program

Top News | Samantha Wong 2 Mar 2018

A total of 27 sites - including nine in Kai Tak - are part of the government's 2018-19 land sales program that was announced yesterday.

Fifteen plots capable of providing about 11,600 flats were rolled over from the last financial year, while the remaining 12 sites have a capacity to yield about 3,600 flats.

The private housing land supply - from the sale of government sites, railway property development projects, projects of the Urban Renewal Authority, and private development or redevelopment projects - is estimated to have a capacity for 25,500 flats, said Secretary for Development Michael Wong Wai-lun.

For the first quarter of the next financial year, the government will tender one residential site in Yau Tong that can produce about 500 flats.

However, of those 25,500 units, 11,710 apartments are at sites that have not yet completed the rezoning process, according to property consultants. "A typical rezoning will take from one to five years, depending on the land use and relevant procedures," said Chiu Kam-kuen, a vice president Asia Pacific of Cushman and Wakefield.

At the same time, the government said it will also publish the tender amounts of all submissions on an anonymous basis. The amounts were not open to the public previously.

"The new initiative will provide more market information for reference by different stakeholders while ensuring that the tender process is smoothly completed," Wong said.

"It should also serve to address the keen market interest over land tender results," he added.

The property development projects owned by the MTR Corp Ltd at Yau Tong Ventilation Building, Wong Chuk Hang Station, Ho Man Tin Station and Lohas Park are estimated to provide a total of 4,250 flats.

The government's housing supply target for the coming 10 years is 460,000 units, of which 40 percent will be private housing.

Four commercial and hotel sites will also be sold by tender.

The sites will provide about 5.7 million square feet of gross floor area, including area for arts and performance-related use, as well as 1,770 hotel rooms.

Demand for high-specification office blocks with large floor plates remains strong and developers are expected to be keen on bidding for these strategic commercial plots, said CBRE.

"It will also alleviate the pressure on high rental in the office market, which is brought on by the reliance of big corporates on setting up offices in traditional central business districts on Hong Kong Island," said Marcos Chan Kam-ping, head of research, CBRE Hong Kong, Southern China and Taiwan.

The government will also put up for sale in the first quarter of the next financial year one industrial site in Fan Ling. Its gross floor are is 197,000 square feet.

samantha.wong@singtaonewscorp.com



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