An analysis on the correlations between heritage conservation and its economic spillover effects in Hong Kong : a study on local districts

Abstract

Heritage conservation has promoted in recent years with the rising awareness of its cultural value. However, noting that the land resource is always scarce in the city, it is inevitable to witness conflicts between developers and the public. The authority, as an arbitrator and a resources allocator, plays a main role in resolving these conflicts by legislative and administrative approaches Yet resources are always limited, so it is crucial to have an unbiased understanding on the cost-effectiveness of the policies. Heritage conservation, which has long been described as some “money-sucking” projects, seemingly violates this principle. To show the advantages of heritage conservation, in this study, the current conservation policies will be examined, and local examples will further be thoroughly analysed. With the proposed prerequisites and criteria, four local cases are selected, namely Blue House and Lui Seng Chun, which adopted a comprehensive conservation approach; as well as 7 Mallory Street and 618 Shanghai Street, which adopted a facadist conservation approach. With heritages chosen from Wanchai and Yau Tsim Mong Districts, the demographics of the two neighbourhoods will also be compared to obtain the difference in effectiveness of conservation in different neighbourhoods. A hedonic price model is suggested to be applied on this study to unveil the correlations between different factors and the property value surrounding the subject heritages. The empirical results acknowledge the positive economic spillovers generated from heritage conservation in all approaches, in which a drop of 0.10% is recorded for a property situating in every meter further away from the subject conserved heritage, although the magnitude varies. It is testified that a heritage undergone a comprehensive conservation approach can create a growth in property price for 9.9% point more than that of a facadist heritage. Heritage conservation is also found to be more effective in run-down neighbourhood, in which the property price decreases by 0.08% point more for every meter further away from the subject conserved heritage in Yau Tsim Mong, a “bad” neighbourhood, than in Wanchai. A “good” neighbourhood. Our findings can lay a foundation for the change in policy-making in view of the current insufficiency in incentives motivating the private sectors to take the lead in heritage conservation. It is proposed that an establishment of legal framework to provide more concrete guidance and direction on heritage conservation can be considered. The adoption of publicprivate partnership is also discussed based on foreign examples. It is believed that the testified positive economic spillovers of heritage conservation can be a strong driving factor fostering both the authority and private owners to contribute more on it. Yet, conservation projects, in the foreseeable future, are still determined by the Government decisions due to its non-profit-making nature. This study, therefore, can only help explore more possibilities for future conservation projects amid the rapid urban development and further researches are needed to verify the positive impacts brought by heritage conservation to effect change.