Hong Kong housing: NGOs find enough previously unidentified brownfield sites to build 95,000 homes
- The report by the NGOs Greenpeace East Asia and Liber Research Community turned up 379 more hectares of brownfield sites than a previous government study
- The groups are calling on the government to take full advantage of the degraded land for developing housing before considering other alternatives like reclamation
The government has underestimated the amount of degraded rural land available for redevelopment into housing by nearly 380 hectares – enough to build 95,000 new homes, according to a new study by two Hong Kong advocacy groups.
In a joint report, Greenpeace East Asia and Liber Research Community said a previous government assessment of so-called brownfield sites – abandoned agricultural plots often occupied by warehouses and car parks – used outdated data, was too cursory and left an entire district out of its findings.
But the new report questions that conclusion, identifying about 1,950 hectares of brownfields scattered across Hong Kong – 379 hectares more than the government’s study turned up. The newly identified areas alone are equivalent to 20 Victoria Parks.
“If the government had done its job properly, they would have found that Hong Kong has many brownfield sites that could be used for development. Brownfields are a good source of land to build housing. There is no need for land reclamation or to develop country parks,” Greenpeace campaigner Chan Hall-sion said.