Tribunals to speed up stalled land negotiations

Stalled land-premium negotiations between the government and developers will be resolved within 10 weeks under a pilot arbitration scheme to be launched next month.

Details of the scheme, which will involve a tribunal comprising a senior legal figure and two surveyors, are mapped out by the Development Bureau in a paper to be tabled for lawmakers' discussion on Wednesday.

The scheme, proposed by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying in his policy address, is being introduced to increase the supply of flats by speeding up land rezoning and redevelopment.

At present, many potential residential projects are delayed by negotiations over the land premium - the amount the developer pays the government to change use of the land. Negotiations between the Lands Department and developers can take up to three years.

Under the new scheme, when the parties fail to reach agreement and the developer has already made two appeals, the decision can be passed to the arbitration panel. However, the Director of Lands will have "unfettered discretion" in deciding whether to resort to arbitration.

The bureau estimates that the process from setting up a tribunal to deciding on a premium would take 10 weeks under the new mechanism.

The tribunal's three members will be nominated and agreed by both the government and the developer. The president will be a retired judge, a barrister or a solicitor with at least 10 years' experience. The two valuation professionals, with at least 10 years' experience, will be nominated by each party.