Policy on Land Development and Accumulation

43.     We have to innovate to expand our land resources.  We have identified the following measures:

(i)         To release about 60 hectares of industrial land for non-industrial uses, half of which will be made available for housing;
(ii)        To explore the option of reclamation on an appropriate scale outside Victoria Harbour.  Public consultation will begin shortly;
(iii)       To actively explore the use of rock caverns to reprovision existing public facilities and release such sites for housing and other uses.  Tentative projects include the relocation of the Sha Tin Sewage Treatment Works and Mount Davis and Kennedy Town Fresh Water Service Reservoirs;
(iv)       To look into the use of green belt areas in the New Territories that are devegetated, deserted or formed, thus no longer performing their original functions, and convert them into housing sites.  The first phase will cover an area of 50 hectares, mainly consisting of government land;
(v)        To examine “Government, Institution or Community” sites to avoid the under-utilisation of sites long reserved but without specific development plans; and study ways to reduce the restrictions posed by government utilities to the development of adjacent areas; and
(vi)       To explore the possibility of converting into housing land some 150 hectares of agricultural land in North District and Yuen Long currently used mainly for industrial purposes or temporary storage, or which is deserted.

Our aim is to ensure an annual supply of land for an average of about 40 000 residential units of various types.  Even when demand for land declines, land development will continue.  The newly developed land will be kept in the Government's land reserve and made available when appropriate.  By doing so, we will be able to supply sufficient land for more than 40 000 units each year when demand rises.

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