An evaluation on opportunities and barriers in developing brownfield sites in Hong Kong

Abstract

Land is crucial for the economic development of Hong Kong and for provision of housing to cater for household and population growth. In recent years, Hong Kong is experiencing a severe housing crisis. The government claims that it is due to the shortfall of developable land supply. Land shortage becomes a pressing issue in Hong Kong which is not easy to resolve. The government purposes to adopt a multi-pronged approach to increase land supply for housing, economic, community and infrastructural needs and for the development needs in the future. In view of the government’s estimation of long-term land shortfall of 1,200 hectares to cater for various development needs of Hong Kong (Hong Kong 2030+), the Task Force on Land Supply was established in September 2017 to review and evaluate different land supply options. In this regard, the public was encouraged to engage in discussion on the pros and cons of different options and priorities. Among the short-to-medium term options, developing brownfield sites in the New Territories (NT) is widely supported by the society according to the views collected from the survey exercise. Brownfield site is an imported term from the western countries. This land supply channel had been overlooked by the Hong Kong government until the government and the concern groups were giving increasing attention to the topic in recent years. The term generally refers to the previously developed land or abandoned industrial land which had been contaminated and requires conducting remediation work before commencement of any redevelopment. However, the brownfield site in Hong Kong usually refers to former agricultural land in NT and most of which are currently used for economic activities instead of for agricultural uses due to the decline of farming industry. As the shortfall of land supply is compromising the livelihood of people in Hong Kong, the government proposes to increase land supply to address the land shortage problems. This dissertation is going to study one of the short-to-medium term options, “developing brownfield sites”. The main objective is to examine the opportunities and barriers in developing brownfield sites in Hong Kong. The study tries to provide feasible policy recommendations to the policy makers in enabling the release of brownfield sites to meet the needs of the society.