Surveyors urge relaxed rules on compulsory sales

The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors has called on the Government to make it easier for developers to acquire properties for urban redevelopment and rural land development.

The law governing compulsory sale orders was too rigid and should be relaxed, the institute's urban renewal committee chairman David Lee Tsung-hei said.

The existing statute empowers the Lands Tribunal to order owners to sell their properties to private developers for redevelopment.

But there were certain restrictions which made it difficult for developers to get orders from the tribunal, Mr Lee said.

Lau Chun-kong, a committee member, said only four to five applications for sale orders had been lodged by developers.

Developers are required to own 90 per cent of the units in a building before they can ask the Lands Tribunal for a compulsory order forcing remaining owners to sell.