Sceptical public says floor area for green features should be cut

The public is sceptical about the effectiveness of green features in new buildings and wants the government to limit the floor area allotted to them, a consultation has found.

When calculating the gross floor area of a building, a developer is granted exemptions for the green features and amenities added to it, which allows the firm to build more flats on the site.

The government commissioned the Council for Sustainable Development in June last year to collect the public's views about this policy.

The council's chairman, Bernard Chan, said yesterday it had received about 1,600 written submissions from the public, professional institutes and developer representatives. Only 347 of the submissions were from individual members of the public. Media coverage and records of public forums were also compiled.

Chan said preliminary analysis shows that most of the members of the public who expressed their views wanted to limit the floor area allotted to green features like balconies and sky gardens.

The public was also concerned about the transparency of sales practices, Chan said, as some homebuyers were not made aware that developers were making them pay for some of the exempted floor area as part of a flat's price.