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Policy Address

Multi-pronged Approach to Enhance Speed and Efficiency

71. To substantially compress the time required for land production, we will:

  1. streamline statutory procedures – We will streamline various procedures with respect to planning, environmental impact assessment (EIA), land resumption and infrastructure through the introduction of a bill to amend the Town Planning Ordinance, the Land Resumption Ordinance, the Foreshore and Sea-bed (Reclamations) Ordinance, the Roads (Works, Use and Compensation) Ordinance and the Railways Ordinance, as well as amendment to the Schedules to the EIA Ordinance within this year. For projects other than large-scale ones, the time required for turning "primitive land" into "spade-ready sites" for housing development will be reduced from at least 6 years to 4 years, while the time required for large-scale projects will be substantially reduced from 13 years to 7 years, of which the time for the EIA process will be compressed to within 18 to 24 months. We will also open up the environmental baseline data next year to enhance the efficiency of the EIA process;

  2. further streamline administrative procedures – We will review key topics including the gross floor area (GFA) concession arrangement for carparks, approval guidelines concerning developments in the wetland buffer area, self-certification and independent checking arrangement, as well as procedures concerning the felling and compensatory planting of trees. We aim to put forward concrete proposals progressively starting from mid-2023;

  3. expedite the approval of building plans – The Buildings Department will establish Dedicated Processing Units adopting a "facilitator" mindset to expedite the approval process of general building plans submitted for high-yield private residential projects. The target is to approve about 80% of the plans on their first or second submission. In addition, we will devise a roadmap on the industry's use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in preparing building plans for submission to departments for approval. An application software will be launched in the first quarter of 2024 to automate compliance checks by the industry on the floor area information in relevant plans;

  4. extend the arrangement for charging land premium at standard rates – We will regularise the arrangement for charging land premium at standard rates for redevelopment of industrial buildings. We will also extend this approach, now applicable only to the redevelopment of industrial buildings and in-situ land exchange applications in NDAs, to cover agricultural land in the New Territories located outside NDAs to compress relevant workflow. We target to present a concrete plan by mid-2023;

  5. speed up the consolidation of property interests to facilitate urban renewal of old areas – We propose lowering the compulsory sale application thresholds for private buildings aged 50 or above but below 70 from 80% to 70% of ownership, and further to 60% for those aged 70 or above. For industrial buildings in non-industrial zoning, the threshold will be lowered to 70% of ownership for those aged 30 years or above. We will also relax the requirements on compulsory sale applications covering abutting lots, streamline the legal procedures for compulsory sale, and set up a dedicated office to provide additional support to affected minority owners. We will consult the LegCo and stakeholders on the proposals within this year; and

  6. streamline the arrangement for land lease extension – As a considerable number of land leases will expire from 2025 onward, the Government will introduce a bill next year such that expiring land leases will be extended regularly and in a consistent manner. This will save individual lot owners from dealing with the complicated procedures and bearing expensive costs in executing lease extension documents, and substantially reduce the time required for lease extension.