At Least 300 Hectares of Brownfield Sites in Hong Kong

A brownfield site that could be developed into land more utilized

A good number of the public are calling for the government to redevelop brownfield sites, but this suggestion seems to fall on deaf ears.

So a local NGO has compiled plots of underutilized land around Hong Kong and calculated there could be as much as 300 hectares available, which are spread out into 532 land parcels that could have a combined size of 14 Taikoo Shing Estates, or 1.7 times the Fanling Golf Course.

They are located in Kwai Tsing, Sha Tin, Tuen Mun and other areas of the New Territories.

Liber Research Community says 60 per cent of this land was used as car parks, while the rest were vacant. Their findings were based on a 2012 government study of unallocated land, and supplemented with information from mapping tools, satellite images, site visits and official papers.

Researchers said such areas were left out of a current public consultation on land supply because the government had failed to disclose such information.

NGO Liber Research Community has a new report out

"Instead of arguing about destructive land supply options such as reclamation and developing country parks, why doesn't the government first fully utilize their own resources and review their potential?" asked Yeung Ha-chi, a Liber researcher.

Yeung said these land parcels could be put to temporary use such as building interim homes for those waiting for public housing and other community facilities.

For example, about 300 hectares could provide 90,000 prefabricated modular housing units, 43 sports complexes and benefit 120,000 people who require elderly residential care services.

Of the 532 land parcels, 306 could be used for short-term leases or temporarily allocated for government use. Other spaces could be temporary car parks, open storage sites, bus depots and temporary offices.

Liber also called on the government to be more transparent in disclosing its data on its use of public land. 

Why have just parking spots on the ground? Hong Kong is such a vertical city and with land at a premium, it makes more sense in terms of time, efficiency and money to redevelop brownfield sites first.

And yet the government doesn't seem to care about these sites, nor that they are already located near transport links, making it easier in terms of people living there to get around for work and such.

Why the stubbornness in refusing to recognize these potential land sites for housing and other uses?

It's time to be prudent about our land use and this is proof we do have vacant and underutilized land.