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1. 80pc mark for old buildings

2. Harbor panel members to fight Central transport plan

3. People want human-scale waterfront, says report

4. Property scheme fails to meet wish list of developers

1. 80pc mark for old buildings
Jonathan Cheng, The Standard, 9 March 2006

Private property development is heading for a boost with a government proposal that may force holdout owners to sell their flats to a developer that owns at least 80 percent of a building's units.

Framing the proposal as a boost to private sector-led urban renewal of Hong Kong's deteriorating buildings, the government will lower the threshold at which developers can seek a compulsory land auction to wrest control of the building's remaining flats from owners who refuse to sell.

Currently, developers with a 90 percent stake in a building can force the remaining owners to sell. Under the proposed amendment to the Land (Compulsory Sale for Redevelopment) Ordinance, that threshold will drop to 80 percent - provided the building is at least 40 years old, or 10 percent of a building's owners are untraceable.

The compulsory land sale can also be triggered when only one owner - accounting for up to 20 percent of a building's total units - refuses to sell.

As before, the final judgment for any compulsory auction will be made by the Lands Tribunal.

But under the proposal, a developer that has bought up to 14 flats in a 16-unit building could force the two holdouts to sell through the land auction - impossible under the current system.

The announcement was praised by developers and professional bodies, which complained that the threshold of 90 percent, introduced seven years ago, was too high, allowing one or two stubborn flat owners to stop an entire redevelopment project.

"We welcome this proposal," said Yu Kam-hung, vice president of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors. "We believe it will help urban renewal, and it will be good for the people of Hong Kong as a whole."

But he said it would take another three to five years to see how much of an impact the proposal would have on older communities.

Yu said the proposal would allow the majority of flat owners to get a decent selling price for their property, since developers typically make collective buyout offers to all of a building's flat owners.

However, Conservancy Association chairman Betty Ho took a more cautious stance, saying the proposal would spur a mushrooming of high-rises in older areas where streets are narrow and density is very high.

She also said the system offered little protection for owners who had genuine reasons to stay and called on the government to force new buildings further back from the street.

"For individuals, I'm afraid there's not much we can do when a redevelopment project is not undertaken by the Urban Renewal Authority," Ho said.

"They can go to the Lands Tribunal to settle the price, but in these older areas, the tenants may be more disadvantaged and they may not qualify for public housing."

Ada Wong, chairwoman of the district council in rapidly aging Wan Chai, described the proposal as a further tilting of the balance toward developers.

"In the old days, owners had much more say when property developers came knocking on their doors," she said.

"What the government is suggesting now is to give developers an easier road for redevelopment.

"But will it in turn destroy the environment and the cultural fabric of our neighborhoods?"

2. Harbor panel members to fight Central transport plan
Leslie Kwoh, The Standard 9 March 2006

Members of the government advisory body tasked with reviewing the Central- Wan Chai bypass project have vowed to oppose the report on transport planning in Central unless a number of amendments are included.

A subcommittee of the Harbour- front Enhancement Committee will meet today to discuss the latest recommendations for the bypass project, produced by a committee task force.

The review will include findings from an expert panel report, previously endorsed by the subcommittee in December, which analyzed traffic data and concluded that a bypass was "necessary" but would only be a "medium- term solution."

The expert panel had also suggested long-term measures such as regulating land-use developments in the area and introducing more rail transport to ease traffic after the bypass is completed.

But according to subcommittee member and business representative Paul Zimmerman, the final version of the review excludes these measures.

"I will call for amendments to re- include them," he said Wednesday. "The review seems only to be guided by the conclusion of the [expert panel] report, which basically just said we need the bypass."

Zimmerman, who did not endorse the expert panel report at the December meeting, believes other members had supported it because "from their perspective major progress had been made" to include long-term planning.

But he felt the panel had made its recommendations purely based on traffic data - without regard to how much reclamation the bypass would require.

"They did not evaluate the situation from the perspective of harborfront enjoyment or reclamation," he said.

Society for Protection of the Harbour director Hardy Lok said he also would not support the review as it seemed to endorse the bypass and all related roads "in full."

Lok, who also did not endorse the panel's report in December, said that while the panel's findings had provided "many useful insights and recommendations," it "suffered from an incurable congenital defect. The panel was not provided with detailed information on what impact the proposed road infrastructure would have on land use and harborfront enjoyment."

3. People want human-scale waterfront, says report
Leslie Kwoh, The Standard, 9 March 2006

Wrapping up a year-long public consultation on the fate of the Central ferry piers area, a government advisory body released a final report Wednesday urging a "humanistic approach" to developing the waterfront.

Having collected more than 3,000 opinions, the Harbor Plan Review subcommittee of the Harborfront Enhancement Committee found that most locals wanted a "human-scale, user-friendly, and intimate environment" around the piers.

Respondents said they preferred a simple design with unique " Hong Kong characteristics," such as traditional small-scale shops. Many also favored more greenery, a widened promenade and open-air restaurants.

Despite the site's proximity to the International Finance Center, few opted for converting the area into a residential or commercial district, and only a minority supported proposals for more elaborate structures, like a museum, library or eco-park.

But some committee members at yesterday's meeting were skeptical about the report's limited scope.

"The report seems to target a specific group of people, the site's end- users, and moreover seems to focus on a particular site," business sector representative Andrew Thomson said. "We should look at the waterfront as a continuous body, not isolated sites."

CityU consultant Andrew Leung acknowledged the report's limited scope, stretching from the Macau ferry terminal to the proposed site for the Central-Wan Chai bypass, was inadequate. "We didn't pay much attention to the east and west of the boundaries," he said.

Others said they felt the results "sent out a clear message." Roger Nissim of the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong said: "I don't think we should be so self-critical about this report. These results are just repeating what we've heard before. The public wants access to the waterfront."

The subcommittee's report is bound for the main committee in April before submission to the Planning Department.

4. Property scheme fails to meet wish list of developers
DENNIS ENG, SCMP 9 March 2006

The government is hoping to instigate much-needed urban redevelopment with a proposal to make it easier for property developers to force the sale of buildings.

The move falls short of industry calls to reduce to 80 per cent the minimum threshold of ownership needed to apply for a compulsory sale. The current threshold stands at 90 per cent.

"We believe that there is room to lower the threshold. But we do not see overall support for an across-the-board reduction," deputy secretary for housing, planning and lands Olivia Nip Sai-lan said.

Under the proposal, the 80 per cent threshold will apply to buildings that satisfy any of three criteria. They are: the developer has acquired all but one of the units; the building is at least 40 years old; or owners holding 10 per cent or more of the building are untraceable.

The "all units but one" requirement targets mainly older buildings, with between five to nine units, while buildings 40 years and older number more than 7,500 and typically suffer from dilapidation, the government said. These properties are ripe for redevelopment, which would benefit the overall living environment, Ms Nip added.

She stressed that the proposal strikes a balance between the urgent need for redevelopment and protecting the interests of minority shareholders.

The government will consult with the private sector and the community until the end of May. If supported, the proposal will be submitted to the Legislative Council in its next session in October.

Yu Kam-hung, an executive director of CB Richard Ellis, said the three criteria were fair and should boost redevelopment prospects, especially in the older districts of Shamshuipo, Western and Kowloon Tong.

"We were hoping for the 80 per cent threshold to apply across-the-board, but the proposal is still acceptable. This is probably just the first step, to allow the community to assess how the new policy fares over the next few years," he said.

Mr Yu pointed out that some developers may decide to hold off on further acquisitions of units in the hopes of forcing building sales under the lower 80 per cent threshold.

However, Eddie Hui Chi-man, an associate professor in Polytechnic University's building and real estate department, warned of possible abuse by developers looking to force the sale of a building by conveniently declaring owners missing or untraceable.

"On what grounds are owners considered missing or untraceable?" asked Professor Hui.

"Taking over a building is incredibly complicated and problematic in Hong Kong."

A case in point is the infamous Garley Building, which was finally acquired by China Resources Enterprise in 2003 after years of trying to persuade the remaining 1 per cent of owners to sell their stakes.

At the end of 2005, 19 applications for compulsory sale for redevelopment had been received by the government, only five of which have been approved.