Revitalisation of industrial buildings in Hong Kong

The scheme of revitalisation of industrial buildings was announced by the Government of Hong Kong in the 2009-2010 Policy address of Hong Kong. The aims of the scheme is to provide more floor spaces for suitable uses in order to meet Hong Kong’s changing social and economical needs. It aims to redevelop unused and affordable industrial buildings into space for new businesses, especially for the "six pillar industries". The scheme was implemented since April 1, 2010. There was a mid-term review of the scheme in September 2011. Afterwards, the deadline for submission of applications was extended from March 31, 2013 to March 31, 2016. The project has three main measures: Lower the ownership application threshold for compulsory sale for redevelopment from 90% to 80%. Give owners options to pay for the assessed land premium by financing at a fixed rate of 2% over five years. Create a tailor-made lease modification which provides land premium based on their most suitable use. The government continues to provide art space at favorable industrial premises. From 2010 to 2013, 13 applications for redevelopment and 49 for wholesale conversion have been approved and it has supplied about 680,000 square meters of non-industrial use area. The revitalisation of industrial buildings has been in progress in areas under the urban renewal project. For instance, Kwun Tong, Sham Shui Po and Kwai Chung . There are several reasons, leading to the change of landuse and the start of the scheme. These include the evolving economy, the rental prices and prices of purchasing offices had tremendously increased in the past decades, leading to the winding down of traditional manufacturing industries. Under numerous circumstances, especially because of the economic factors as mentioned, many factories were relocated to Mainland China. As a result, many industrial buildings have become vacant or under-utilised. The vacancy rate of industrial buildings was 6.7% in December 2007 indicating that there was a waste of valuable land resources in the area.