The government will look for more sites next to railway lines to boost land supply, according to the secretary for development.
'We want to speed up the development of railway property projects,' Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said yesterday. 'The two projects at Kam Sheung Road station and Pat Heung can already provide 8,700 flats. We will need to find dozens of other sites elsewhere that match up with that potential.'
In Wednesday's budget, the government announced plans to make large residential sites at the West Rail Kam Sheung Road station and Pat Heung depot in Kam Tin available for property development. These sites can offer about 8,700 flats, of which 40 per cent will be small and medium-sized.
Lam said the government had discussed with the MTR Corporation plans to identify more housing land along railway lines, both existing and planned. She did not disclose the sites being considered, but the government may need to acquire land near stations for redevelopment.
Land in and around the Kam Sheung Road station and Pat Heung depot sites might be available for development in 2014 at the earliest, Lam said. The two sites will be designated for 'mid-density development', with a plot ratio of 3 to 1, which would mean the sites will be able to generate nearly 6.46 million sq ft of gross floor area.
Plot ratio is the ratio between the total gross floor area and the area of the site in question.
According to the Town Planning Board, Kam Tin South has more than 200 hectares of farmland - equal to the size of at least five West Kowloon Cultural Districts.