How rezoning of Hong Kong’s industrial sites for residential use could provide the city with homes it desperately needs

There has been a steady effort to reinvigorate industrial areas that have suffered urban decay with office, retail and residential developments

The government’s plan to upgrade industrial sites in Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin and Tung Tau in Yuen Long has the potential to provide more than 13,000 homes

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A file photo from1996 shows some industrial buildings in Kwun Tong. Photo: SCMP

Bill Chan

Bill Chan is head of industrial services at Colliers.

Published: 12:01pm, 14 Jun 2022

Investors have always had a healthy appetite for land in Hong Kong. Now, the government’s bid to rezone industrial sites and buildings for residential use will undoubtedly be a welcome amuse-bouche.

After the second world war, manufacturing blossomed in Hong Kong and became the city’s main economic driver. By 1950, manufacturing powered the city’s growth financially and spurred the development of industrial areas for factories and residential areas with housing estates to accommodate the growing workforce. When China began its reforms and opened up in the 1980s, they began to drift northwards in search of lower overheads, leaving Hong Kong with numerous unused industrial buildings and sites.

Over the years, these industrial areas have suffered urban decay, but there has been a steady effort to reinvigorate them with office, retail and residential developments. One sterling example of this transformation is Kwun Tong, where Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) developed its APM mall. Incidentally, Kwun Tong was one of Hong Kong’s first industrial estates. The process has been long and slow, and now the government wants to expedite it, to provide desperately needed homes.

Hong Kong’s old industrial area of Kwun Tong has been successfully rejuvenated, with Sun Hung Kai Properties’ APM mall a prime example. Photo: SCMP

Previously, it was incumbent on the developer to, among other things, apply to change the site’s permitted use from industrial to commercial or residential. But that hurdle at least might fade if the government’s plan of upgrading industrial sites, even though there is no current application to do so, is passed. At the moment, however, the plan only covers specific industrial sites, which have the combined potential to provide more than 13,000 homes.

The areas covered are: