Hong Kong to help finance Northern Metropolis project with land exchange scheme, but conservation plans may change
- Owners can keep land earmarked for new town and build according to zoning uses, but they will be required to pay premium, development chief Bernadette Linn says
- Minister also stresses former plan for protecting wetlands in area and establishing conservation parks contained only preliminary figures for sizes and may change
The government will help finance the development of the Northern Metropolis mega project along Hong Kong’s border with mainland China by using a land exchange arrangement in a bid to ease the pressure on taxpayers, a minister has revealed.
Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho on Monday also stressed that an earlier plan for protecting wetlands and establishing parks in the area could change, saying the figures previously given were not “promises”.
Under the financing scheme, authorities would allow the current owners of land earmarked for the new town to keep their plots and build according to zoning uses, but they would be required to pay a premium to authorities, Linn said. Otherwise, they would be offered compensation, she added.
“If more land owners can participate and act in accordance with the government’s plan, it can alleviate the government’s capital burden as we do not need to pay the compensation, while the owners will conduct site formation works,” Linn said.
For the Northern Metropolis, the administration plans to lay out all development proposals by the end of next year and complete 40 per cent of the planned flats by 2032.
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The new town will extend across 30,000 hectares (74,130 acres) in the northern New Territories. The government has already announced it will resume ownership of 700 hectares across the city in the next five years for development, most of it located in the new town area.
But the administration has yet to reveal the cost. It is one of two of the biggest projects the government is moving forward with, the other being artificial islands off Lantau.
How to best fund them remains a pressing concern. The finance chief last week said the budget deficit could be nearly twice that of earlier estimates and exceed HK$100 billion (US$12.8 billion).
Linn said the land exchange arrangement would reduce the overall amount of compensation for land owners as they could opt to pay a premium to turn farmland into residential, commercial or community developments.
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The financing scheme was launched in 2014 and only applicable to the Kwu Tung North and Fanling North New Development Area. The second phase began last year and out of 18 applications received, eight have been rejected or withdrawn, seven are still under discussion due to the land premiums involved, while the others are still being processed.
Linn said the government would still resume the sites in stages if land owners’ response to the land exchange arrangement was lukewarm.
“We expect to take back the sites,” she said. “We will prepare and consider suitable financing options.”
She was referring to work to be taken up by the Committee on the Financing of Major Development Projects and its new office, announced by city leader Lee last Wednesday.
Liber Research Community, an NGO focusing on land and development policy, said property companies that had built up their land banks in the area would benefit from the arrangement, but the ownership of plots by different parties could lead to poor town planning.
“Does the government have to give away its say due to its financial hardship?” group founder Chan Kim-ching asked.
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First mentioned in 2021 by then chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the Northern Metropolis project was divided into three areas focused on business, I&T and eco-recreation.
The latest plan redrew the boundary into four major zones with a newly added high-end professional services and logistics hub.
The previous plan earmarked about 2,000 hectares for wetlands and conservation, but the current one no longer mentions the figure or two of the parks earlier proposed.
Secretary Linn said the former framework was preliminary and the figures mentioned were not “promises”, adding she could not guarantee preserving all the existing wetlands.
“Hong Kong has limited land supply,” she said. “The most important thing is to ensure conservation quality. We don’t have to be bounded by the amount of wetland.”
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Asked whether the conservation area would be decreased, authorities urged the public to wait for the feasibility study to be completed next year, which would cover the parks mentioned before.
Roy Ng Hei-man, campaign officer at the Conservancy Association, said he hoped the government could release more details at a wetlands public consultation scheduled for next month.
“Or else, there is nothing to be discussed,” Ng said. “Why can’t the government reveal some preliminary figures and details when it can lay out development details?”
