Northern Metropolis: major Hong Kong developer Henderson Land says it will not resist government’s creation of new green belt

The developer currently has a project in the review phase within an area affected by the planned 2,000-hectare conservation zone

‘If the plan has a beneficial effect on society, we should not feel resistant,’ executive director tells forum on metropolis project

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Henderson Land has said it will not resist government efforts to establish a new wetland conservation belt as part of its Northern Metropolis blueprint. Photo: Martin Chan

Published: 6:37pm, 29 Nov 2021Updated: 10:19pm, 29 Nov 2021

Hong Kong’s Henderson Land has said it will not resist government efforts to establish a conservation belt under the Northern Metropolis blueprint, despite the developer’s plans for a residential project within the affected area.

Speaking at a forum on the planned metropolis on Monday, the executive director of Henderson – the city’s third-largest developer by market value – said it would consider selling wetlands it owns to the government for incorporation into the green belt.

“If the plan has a beneficial effect on society, we should not feel resistant,” Augustine Wong Ho-ming said. “I don’t think we would consider that there will be contradictions and confrontations in this matter.”

First unveiled in Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s policy address last month, the Northern Metropolis plan aims to turn parts of the New Territories near the border with mainland China into an economic and residential hub housing some 2.5 million people.

The plan also calls for the creation of three wetland conservation parks totalling some 2,000 hectares (4,942 acres). About 700 hectares of that land are currently owned by private developers, including Henderson, and would need to be resumed by the government.

Henderson also has a proposed residential project in the affected area currently being reviewed by the Town Planning Appeal Board.

The government has yet to disclose the scope of the resumption, or say how much it would pay to take back the land in question, with analysts keen to know whether developers would have made a profit had they been allowed to build on the sites themselves.

Asked if Henderson would be inclined to accept a government offer to resume the plots, Wong said they were willing to discuss it.

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