RICS urges Hong Kong to review planning regulations and build new logistic hub

HONG KONG, CHINA - Media OutReach - 28 April 2017 - RICS (The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) agrees to the planning challenges and proposals outlined in Hong Kong Government's territorial development plan beyond 2030, while highlighting a few concerns and offering recommendations to the Government in order to take this plan forward.

The plan, officially known as "Hong Kong 2030+: Towards a Planning Vision and Strategy Transcending 2030", or simply "Hong Kong 2030+", aims at making Hong Kong a more liveable city. However, RICS believes many underlying assumptions adopted in the estimates of the current plan insufficiently reflect Hong Kong's future development needs, and that the Government can do more to facilitate urban renewal process.

"Due to the uncertainty and changing demand of land resources in the future, we encourage Hong Kong Government to adopt a more flexible approach towards town planning, land use and building control as well as the urban renewal policies," said Mr Clement Lau FRICS, Chair of RICS Hong Kong Board.

RICS's views and recommendations are summarised as below:

1. The projected spatial demand and planning partially capture the evolving nature of land use in future.RICS expects Hong Kong's future development needs to be vastly different from the estimates in the government's current plan, due to changes in demographics, technology, workplace strategies, as well as intensifying regional economic competition.
2. The public engagement documents do not address the urgent need for a holistic and integrated review of current regulations on planning, land policies and building controls.Faster urban redevelopment and higher home ownership are pivotal for a liveable city. However, the existing regulations lack the flexibility and agility to facilitate rejuvenation of obsolete and densely developed areas. More flexible urban-renewal process and policies will support the increase in the supply of re-developable sites and facilitate the removal of ageing buildings more quickly and contribute to making Hong Kong more liveable. In addition, declining housing affordability in Hong Kong is believed to be one of the major sources of social tensions. RICS believes the Government should review its public housing policy, particularly the subsidized housing schemes.
3. Kau Yi Chau can be developed into a logistic hub, instead of the third central business district (CBD3) in Hong Kong.RICS suggests relocating the current container ports away from Kwai Chung/Tsing Yi area to Kau Yi Chau. The reclamation at East Lantau near Kau Yi Chau offers a good opportunity for Hong Kong to create a new logistic hub by consolidating the air, sea and land freight operations to serve the Greater Pearl River Delta, and regenerate the Kwai Chung/Tsing Yi area to become a new CBD in Hong Kong.
4. The Government should make land-supply schedule more transparent and promote rural land conversions.RICS suggests establishing a land reserve record to meet the changing demands of our future generations, in order to facilitate better business, economic and investment planning. The Government should alsoreview the land exchange and lease modification mechanism to unlock the development potential of the agricultural land, and incentivise developers to make use of their land holdings for new developments.

RICS is a global professional body working across land, real estate, construction and infrastructure. We have a public interest mandate to engage government and industry leaders on this report. Working across 148 countries, RICS professionals harness their expertise for the benefits of people and communities.

For our detailed recommendations, please download the press conference powerpoint in below link: 

http://www.bdcshk.com/webcontent/RICS/RICS_HK2030+_PPT.pdf

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