Evaluation of government’s revitalization measures of older industrial buildings in Hong Kong

Abstract

Due to high production cost and labour cost, the factories were moved to the Mainland China. The activity of manufacturing industry was declined in Hong Kong. Financing and commercial industries are developing speedily and dominating the major market. In a result, the existing industrial buildings become vacant and obsolescent. To maintain the revenue continuously, the industrial buildings’ owners modified the use of industrial building to non-industrial illegally, such as, residential and restaurant. It is dangerous and harmful to the users because the modification may not fulfil the legal and safety regulations. To minimize the obsolescence and maximize the consumption of vacant industrial buildings, the government launched the measures to encourage the industrial buildings’ owners to carry out the wholesale conversion and redevelopment of older industrial buildings (the “revitalization measures”) (Development Bureau, 2010) on 1st April 2010. The scheme allowed the buildings’ owner to convert the use of industrial buildings to non-industrial use. The land use of industrial buildings was converted into commercial and hotel successfully. However, the revitalization scheme was suspended on March 2016. It is time to evaluate the effectiveness of the revitalization measures and provide the recommendations if the scheme will reactivate in the future. In order to evaluate the revitalization scheme, three criteria are created which are ability of urban competitiveness, release of industrial land for non-industrial uses and sustainable development of industrial buildings. Through the analysis from observations in industrial districts, in-depth interviews and government data, it finds that the scheme could achieve the above criteria in a great extent. The ability of urban competitiveness could be enhanced by the increase of employment rate, price and rental indices of industrial properties and decrease of vacancy rate of industrial buildings. Meanwhile, the land supply of commercial and hotels increases which encourages the development of secondary business districts and tourism, as well as the development of Kowloon East. Revitalization inspires the buildings’ owners to provide co-working spaces in revitalized buildings which stimulates the development of cultural and creative industry. The scheme reduces the numbers of obsolescent industrial buildings for non-industrial uses and promotes the sustainable development of industrial buildings by wholesale conversion. However, the response rate of application is low because of the multiple ownership which is difficult to obtain mutual consent for revitalization and financial burden for construction. Some recommendations are suggested in the dissertation including the relaxation on the provision of carpark spacing, regulation and limitation on fire safety, reduction of approval time between different government departments, stabilization on the rental price of revitalized buildings and maintaining balance between owners and artists. The recommendations would encourage and attract buildings’ owners to apply for revitalization in the future. Regarding the latest policy of transitional housing in revitalized buildings during the reactivation of revitalization scheme, the proposal is feasible but the government should pay attention to the provision of fire safety equipment in order to ensure the safety of users ad residents.