ENG-2019 — Page 238

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Planning, Land and Infrastructure

Land Sale Programme, railway property development, urban renewal and private development or redevelopment projects.

Commercial and Industrial Land Supply

Measures to increase the supply of commercial/business sites include putting up new commercial and industrial sites for sale, converting government properties and government, institution or community sites in CBDs for commercial use, providing commercial space at the Central Harbourfront upon completion of works, energising Kowloon East as CBD2, and earmarking land for commercial and industrial use in new development projects, including the development of CBD3 on the Kau Yi Chau artificial islands proposed under the Lantau Tomorrow Vision.

In 2019-20, the government sold the commercial site atop the Hong Kong West Kowloon Station of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link and a commercial/hotel site at the Kai Tak Development Area.

Review on Government, Institution or Community Sites

The government undertook in the 2019 Policy Address to review over 300 sites with a total land area of some 300 hectares currently earmarked for standalone public facilities, with a view to putting them into more optimal uses. Proposals may include developing multipurpose public facility buildings under the 'single site, multiple use' model, developing residential projects and public facilities under a mixed development model, or retaining individual sites for standalone government facilities.

Revitalisation of Industrial Buildings

During the year, the Town Planning Board (TPB) approved 11 applications for the redevelopment of industrial buildings. It allowed the plot ratios of most of these applications to increase by up to 20 per cent to optimise the use of land resources, having confirmed the technical feasibility of the proposed increases in development density.

Land Disposal

Government land is usually disposed of through public sale for private residential, commercial and other developments. Included in the annual Land Sale Programme are sites with potential for sale in the year. The government announces quarterly sites to be tendered to provide transparency and certainty for the market, and may add sites for sale in the course of a quarter in response to changing market conditions.

In August, the government revised requirements for the payment of the initial deposit and the balance of the tendered sum in government land sales by public tender. The maximum initial deposit payable by each tenderer upon tender submission was increased from $25 million to $50 million. A further deposit is also required from the successful tenderer within seven working days of the date of the tender award to top up the total deposit to 10 per cent of the tendered

sum.

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