The coming year’s Land Sale Programme will include seven commercial sites and one for a hotel, providing a total floor area of 230,000 square metres and 1,100 hotel rooms, says Financial Secretary John Tsang.
Delivering his 2014-15 Budget today, Mr Tsang said the increased land supply for commercial use would accommodate more economic activity and create job opportunities. To achieve this, he proposed continued measures to boost supply.
“We shall seek to increase the supply of commercial land to provide more opportunity for the community and various sectors. I shall allocate an additional funding of over $650 million in the coming five years to the bureaux and departments involved in this work to create 229 posts of different grades to enhance land development efforts,” he said.
The Planning Department is reviewing industrial sites for possible conversion into other uses, he noted, while the Lands Department has approved lease-modification or land-exchange applications in the past two years to provide about 250,000 square metres of commercial floor area.
He also proposed speeding up the conversion of Government, Institution or Community sites into core business districts for commercial use, such as multi-storey car parks and former Government offices.
The new Central harbourfront will provide about 260,000 square metres for office, retail, hotel and other uses, while the Kai Tak Development will provide about 1.4 million square metres of commercial space starting from 2016-17.
Relocating and integrating Government facilities at Kwun Tong waterfront and in Kowloon Bay will provide 120,000 square metres to be released in the next financial year, while a pilot study is underway on developing underground space in Causeway Bay, Happy Valley, Admiralty, Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui West.
In terms of long-term development, Mr Tsang said $60 million has been earmarked for a feasibility study on developing space at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge boundary-crossing facilities, covering about 130 hectares for commercial purposes, which will connect with new development areas in Tuen Mun and also tie in with commercial space development at the airport.
He also noted that studies planned for New Territories North, the East Lantau Metropolis as proposed in the Chief Executive’s recent Policy Address, and reclamation at Sunny Bay will also explore economic development possibilities.
