Small developers gaining support
Small developers have been gaining support for their calls to the Government and the Mass Transit Railway Corp (MTRC) to offer more smaller land lots for sale and development.
More small developers and academic groups have joined the appeal to subdivide large land parcels since a group of 17 small players first made the call in September.
Tony Tse Wai-chuen, director of Emperor International Holdings, said an increasing number of industry developers understood that smaller players' demands were not unreasonable.
Emperor International is one of the 17 small developers which voiced concerns about the issue.
Mr Tse said the small developers would increase their exposure in future in a bid to explain their views to different walks of life.
'People have started to learn more about our idea of urging the offer of optimal-sized land,' he said.
Mr Tse said most people he had contacted thought the idea was encouraging.
At present, the number of supporters had increased to more than 20 companies after a comprehensive discussion with various parties, he said.
He said developers were not finding it easy to raise billions of dollars considering banks had tightened their lending attitude after the financial crisis.
The sale of parcels of land involving more than one million square feet in gross floor area might face a problem in generating keen bidding amid a market downturn, he said.
The advantage of releasing smaller lots for sale could allow all developers to join the competition, which might result in better bids and help to improve market sentiment, he said.
In September, the 17 small developers, led by K Wah International, wrote to the Financial Secretary and the Secretary for Housing suggesting the Government should cut large sites into small parcels, so smaller players could also be involved.
The group also urged the Government to release more small lots in the urban populated areas rather than in remote districts and outlying islands.
The MTRC is set to release a series of property developments along the Tseung Kwan O railway extension next year. They are mainly large in development scale and some of the small developers want them reduced into smaller-sized lots.
Government officials have so far remained cool on the proposal as they believe large sites can accommodate better planning and more comprehensive facilities.
They maintained that there were adequate small lots in the land sales programme application list for developers to pick. Small developers claimed that those sites were either unattractive or in remote areas.
The debate on splitting large sites into smaller parcels came up in April after a big residential site in West Kowloon, near Cheung Sha Wan, sold for a lower than expected HK$1.9 billion after a single bid in the government auction.
The buyer was a joint venture between the SAR's two biggest developers, Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Sun Hung Kai Properties - which fuelled calls for measures to encourage bidding and competition.
