HOUSING AND LAND
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Lands and Survey Office of the Public Works Department, are responsible for carrying out land sales, land and property valuations, land acquisition, estate management and clearance services. The staff of professional officers also record and analyse all sales and lettings in the territory's urban areas, in order to monitor market trends and factors affecting the value of land and buildings.
The Secretary for the New Territories is responsible for land administration in the New Territories. His supporting staff for this purpose comprises professional officers seconded from the Crown Lands and Survey Office, assisted by his own department staff.
Policy
All land in Hong Kong is owned by the Crown, which sells or grants leasehold interests. In the early days, Crown leases were for terms of 75, 99 or 999 years. They have now been standardised in the urban areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon to a term of 75 years, usually renewable for a further 75 years at a reassessed Crown rent under the provisions of the Crown Leases Ordinance. Crown leases for land in the New Territories and New Kowloon are normally sold for the residue of a term of 99 years less the last three days from July 1, 1898, and therefore terminate three days before the expiry of the lease from China.
The government's land policy is to optimise the use of land within the framework of development plans. Most land available for commercial, industrial or residential (other than public housing) development in the urban areas is sold by public auction or tender. Regular auctions are held by the government and a six-monthly provisional Crown land sales forecast is published twice a year. In the towns of the New Territories, however, where much of the development land has to be resumed, a high proportion of development land is disposed of by tender to holders of land exchange entitlements.
Leases for certain special purposes, which have particular site requirements or other factors which would make a public auction inappropriate, are offered for sale by public tender. These special purposes include capital-intensive industries (which introduce higher technology and more technological skills into Hong Kong), that could not be appropriately housed in multi-storey buildings. These sales are initiated only in response to a formal application, and in certain circumstances may be concluded by private treaty, subject to the approval of the Governor in Council.
During the year, two very valuable sites were offered to the public by tender rather than by means of public auction. The response to these two tenders was very good, and it is expected that the more valuable sites will be disposed of in this way in the future.
The government has also embarked on a programme to redevelop sites occupied by government staff quarters which are at present under-developed. The intention is to provide more staff quarters and at the same time to make land available for good quality private housing. These sites are offered for sale by public tender and the purchaser is required to build and return to the government a specified number of staff quarters as well as paying a premium. The remainder of the permissible development on each site is retained by the developer as his share of the transaction.
To meet the demand for high-class housing the government has embarked on a scheme to put on to the market more land to meet this demand. In particular, a large site of 134,990 square metres at Red Hill on Hong Kong Island was offered for sale by public tender.
The bulk of industrial accommodation in Hong Kong is provided by developers for onward sale or rent to industrialists. Accordingly, to cater for specialist industrial users, a number of recent industrial lots sold in both the urban area and the New Territories