Antiquities & Monuments Office experts have finished the preliminary assessment of 1,444 historic buildings in Hong Kong and have proposed grading for 1,154.

Under the proposal, 212 will be Grade I, 366 Grade II and 576 Grade III. There is no proposed grading for the remaining 290 buildings.

Announcing the results today, Antiquities Advisory Board Chairman Bernard Chan said some of the buildings have been graded by the board in the past but may be accorded a different grading following the assessment.

Better protection

He said the list of grade one buildings, if approved by the board, will be regarded as providing a pool of highly valuable heritage buildings for consideration by the Antiquities Authority as to whether some of these may have reached the "high threshold" of monuments to be put under statutory protection.

If the buildings are under demolition threat, the authority can declare them as proposed monuments to provide immediate protection.

The gradings will also form the basis for implementation of heritage-conservation measures, including the Heritage Impact Assessment mechanism applicable for government capital works projects, and the financial assistance scheme which subsidises private owners in maintaining their historic buildings.

Suitable Government-owned graded historic buildings will be selected to be included in the Revitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme for adaptive re-use through the operation of social enterprises by non-profit-making organisations with funding support from Government.

Public consultation

The results of the assessment have been uploaded to the Antiquities & Monuments Office's website. People are invited to give their views on the results in the coming four months.

The office will also consult District Councils on the issue and will compile all the data collected for the expert panel's review.