The System of Urban Land Policies in Hong...
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1 by Dr Edward CY Yiu Associate Professor Dept of Geography and Resource Management, Chinese University of Hong Kong ARCH 4721 Land and City, CUHK 22 Oct 2014 The System of Urban Land Policies in Hong Kong - How land policies and regulations shape the urban form
Transcript of The System of Urban Land Policies in Hong...
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by Dr Edward CY Yiu Associate Professor
Dept of Geography and Resource Management, Chinese
University of Hong Kong
ARCH 4721 Land and City, CUHK
22 Oct 2014
The System of Urban Land Policies in Hong Kong
- How land policies and regulations shape the urban form
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Net Benefits of Urbanization Conditioned by the Institutional Framework
The net benefits of urbanization are
conditioned by the institutional framework
within which cities operate.
• Where there is effective representative
government;
• Where there is a dynamic market
economy;
• Where the rule of law is upheld and
• Where civil society is independent
from the state,
The benefits of a dense population
overwhelm the costs.
Urban Forms are shaped by Institutional
Framework!
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Political and Economic Institutions Determine Development Form
Gisenyi in Rwanda,
orderly street, taxis,
electricity and water
Goma in Congo, no
electricity, water or
basic services
Why Nations Fail uses the large differences in income borders as a way of showing
dramatically how changes in institutions can lead to large differences in prosperity.
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Different Urban Policy, Different Urban Form – Case 1
• One City, Two Systems
– One of the densest
settlements in the world
– A pre-colonial town within
a colonial city
– Kowloon City - the
world’s greatest informal
settlement (unplanned)
– The history: http://kwunchungbattle.wikia.com/wiki/Kowlo
on_Walled_City
– http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2011/01/08/
whats-left-of-the-kowloon-walled-city/
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A City of Anarchy
• An independent city without
state • http://randomwire.com/kowloon-walled-city-
20-years-later/
• But it was gone.
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Case 2: A Pre-Colonial Village in a Post-Colonial City
• One City, Two Systems:
– One of the earliest indigenous village in Hong Kong, which still exists;
– It is not in the New Territories, but on the Island, i.e. NOT small houses.
– Low-rise high-dense organic urban form? Why?
Pokfulam Village from 1868 to 2013
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Urban Forms of HK
• High Rise and High Dense; • Verandah and Balcony; • Podium and Tower; • Bay Window and Scissor Staircase; • Link Bridge; • Unaffordable.
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Why High Rise High Dense?
Land Use Distribution HK 2012
Use (用途) %
R (住) 6.9%
I/C (工商) 2.7%
G (綠) 66.6%
AGR (農) 6.1%
GIC/O (政/空)
4.5%
http://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/info_serv/statistic/landu.html
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HK Cityscape: A Dim Sum Urbanism
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Contrast Low Density
High Density
2010 SIN 2012 HK
Res. 10,000 (14%) 9,760 (9.5%)
Ind./Com. 9,700 (13%) 2,300 (2.1%)
Green 5,700 (8%) ~73,000 (66%)
GIC 5,400 (8%) 3,700 (3.5%)
Total 71,000 109,200
Total Land Use Area (ha) SIN v HK
Country/ city
GDP per Capita
Ave. Living
Area (sf)
Per Person
(sf)
US 51,704 2,476 ~800
Taiwan 38,357 1,119 ~370
SIN 60,799 1,044 323
Tokyo 35,855 667 ~220
Shanghai 9,055 560 194
HK 50,936 452 161
Ave per person living area of HK = 0.5 of SIN
Modest overall density,
but very high urban
density of HK.
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Because the
average
density, not
urban
density, is
considered
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Innovations by Institutional Forces
Scissor staircases are an effective design
strategy to minimize common
areas (core) and thus maximize
residential (saleable) area.
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Institutional Force: Density Control
• Tall buildings are
encouraged by
regulations:
– S.19-23 Building (Planning)
Regulations (BPR)
– Plot ratio increases with building
height, but
– Site coverage decreases with
building height.
Each floor area
= 720sm
Site area = 1,000sm
Ht = 18m, pr = 4.3, sc = 72%
Site area = 1,000sm
Ht = 75m, pr = 10, sc = 40%
6-storey
OR
Ht
Domestic buildings Non-domestic buildings
Percentage site
coverage Plot ratio
Percentage site
coverage Plot ratio
Class
A
site
B C
Class
A
site
B C
Class
A
site
B C
Class
A
site
B C
<= 15 m 66.6 75 80 3.3 3.75 4.0 100 100 100 5 5 5
>15 m <=18
m 60 67 72 3.6 4.0 4.3 97.5 97.5 97.5 5.8 5.8 5.8
>55 m <= 61 m
34 38 41 6.8 7.6 8.0 60 62.5 65 12.2 12.5 13.0
....
Over 61 m 33.33 37.5 40 8.0 9.0 10.0 60 62.5 65 15 15 15
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Height Control by Other Regulations
Authority Height Control
Land Lease Condition Can be modified by paying land premium
Town Planning Ordinance :
BHR
BHR should allow owners to develop their
properties to the permitted level of intensity
(protecting property rights)
Other height restrictions of
TPO
TST East, Kowloon Tong Garden City, Houses on
the Peak, Stanley …
Small House Policy
(BO(ANT)O)
3-storey of 750sf each
HK Airport (COO) Ordinance Tung Chung, Kowloon East (bef 1997), …
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Why Verandah and Balcony?
Urban
Policies
Specific Descriptions
GFA
Concessions
Projections over public street
Street
Lighting
A Tapered City
http://ecyyiu.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/so
me-history-of-building-codes-of-the-
us/comment-page-1/#comment-3600
23 Shanghai Street before WWII
Pre-War Tong Lau
• Tong Lau 唐樓(Chinese
Tenement or shophouse) is
NOT Chinese architecture;
• but a Cross-over between
European and Asia Pacific
Style
– Veranda 走馬騎樓；
– Columns on street 臨街柱子；
– Blocks in row 排樓格式；
– T-shaped floor plan 工字型
GFA Concession
• BO s.31 Projections on or over
streets – no building or other
structure shall be erected in,
over, under or upon any portion
of any street …
• But by Schedule G of BO 1935
(or earlier versions), verandahs
and balconies are exempted
from this restriction;
• The first gfa concession (發水)
in Hong Kong.
Verandahs and Balconies
Regulations BO 1903, s.134 –
s.134: No encroachment shall be made on, over or into
unleased Crown land by any verandah or balcony, or by
any area, or by any structure whatsoever –
1.Unless with the previous consent of the Governor; and
2.Until the applicant for leave to make such
encroachment shall have previously signed an
undertaking in the form contained in Schedules E or F;
and
3.Unless subject to the regulations contained in Schedule
G or such other regulations as may be in force; and
4.Unless the building to which such verandah, balcony,
area or structure appertains shall comply in all respects
with every provision of this Ordinance.
s.137: No verandah shall, except with the consent of the
Governor in Council, be hereafter projected over any
street, whether public or private, which is less than 50 feet
in width.
Little Veranda 小飛騎
• Narrow street -> narrow
balcony
Why Round Corners Tong Lau ?
• Maximize the projection over
street (concession);
• When the street is round corner, it
results in a round corner building
form.
天階騎樓 Street Light Veranda • Street Lighting Requirement
「銀燭秋光冷畫屏，輕羅小扇撲流螢。天階夜色涼如水，坐看牽牛織女星。」[唐•杜牧《秋夕》] 「天階」不是登天之梯，而是「天井」[王亭之《廣府回憶》]
Post-War Tong Lau • More advanced reinforced
concrete technology:
– Balcony 陽台；
– Cantilevered (no columns on
street) 臨街無柱；
– Blocks in row 排樓格式。
Why Shoring?
• Party wall shared by 2 blocks;
• If redevelop one first, …
Why Tapered?
• High-rise, no natural lighting
• BO 1935
– 75 degree to horizontal
– Protect street shadow
Why Tapered?
• New York Zoning Regulations,1916:
– Set back, FAR, Skyscrapers
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Why Podium and Tower?
Cake and Candles
New York “Wedding Cake” without candle?
Hong Kong “Birthday Cake” with
Candles 蛋糕蠟燭
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Why Podium and Tower?
• BPR 1976:
• S.20(3): Subject to the provisions of paragraph
(4), the site coverage for a non-domestic
building, or for the non-domestic part of a
composite building, on a class A, B or C site
may, whatever the height of the building, exceed
the permitted percentage site coverage to a
height not exceeding 15 m above ground level.
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HK: A City of Bay Windows
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Why Bay Windows?
• PNAP 68
• Projections in relation to
site coverage and plot
ratio
• if projections are not at a
floor level, or potential
floor level, and do not
dominate the face of a
building, measurement
as accountable gross
floor area is not required
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Facades Changes
• Verandah (bef 1945),
Balcony (bef 1970), Bay
Windows (1980s),
Green Balcony (2000s),
AVA Big Hole (2010s)
• (騎陽窗露洞)
Floor Plans Changes
• I, II, T, # (一二工井) – I-plan before 1894 (Bubonic Plague)；
– II-plan after 1894: separate 2 blocks by a back lane;
– T-plan after 1903: provide 2 yards to further enhance
natural lighting and ventilation;
• then a longer T due to the requirement of 2 exit staircase;
– #-plan after 1969: without veranda concession, twist 8-T
into a circle makes a #. Yards become re-entrants;
– Then, SARS in 2003, spread by re-entrants, but ...
Renaissance City (Y. Asihara)
A: 240 x 340m;
B: 270 x 340m,
C: 180 x 340m
• Street form of the city: every 100m block accommodates about 20+ repeating balconies in harmony.
• Uniform height (H) of about 15m, even less than street width (D), D/H>1.
• Asihara(1983) Renaissance City
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Why Link Bridges?
• S.22 BPR
• Surrender of land
for public
passage;
• Bonus GFA = 5 x
surrendered area
or less than 20%
of the permissible
plot ratio;
Why Public Facilities in
Private Developments?
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• Public Open Space in
Private Developments;
• Public Transportation
Terminals under Private
Developments;
Public Infrastructure at No Cost
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• Nominal land premium
– BOT
– BOOT
– PPP
See
http://ecyy.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/9/3/12935669/hulu_talk_on_ppp_jun_201
3.pdf
By Consequences
High Rise, High Density
Little Land Supply, Regulation Encourages
High Land Price
Veranda and Balcony Concessions Extra Profits of Developments
Street Lighting, Lane, Yard
Diseases Tapered Form, Street Form
Podium and Tower Regulation Encourages Cake and Candle
Link Bridge, Concessions Extra Profits of Developments
Public Space in Private Dev.,
Privately Built Infrastructure
Lease Conditions, PPP
Govt Saves Money
All Are About Money!
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Urban Policies & Urban Forms
Economic Efficiency
Social Equity Environmental Sustainability
Technopolis
Anthropopolis Ecumenopolis Technopolis: constellation of massive
transportation, telecommunications,
and information networks to move
goods, people, and information to
achieve high economic efficiency.
HK
Sui, D.Z.
http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/conf/BALTIMORE/auth
ors/sui/paper.html
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The Most Expensive Apartment in the World?
• The Opus
• Frank Gehry-designed;
• (6,683 square foot);
• HK$455 million in 2012;
• i.e. HK$68,000 psf. (US$8,700 psf)
Land (for all uses)
Private Housing Units to be built
Bef 1997 < 50 ha Ave. 26,000
2011/12 36.8 ha 9,450
2012/13 30.2 ha 10,150
2013/14 25.8 ha 13,550
Target - 20,000
Restrictive Land Supply
See Peng, R. and Wheaton, W.C. (1994) Effects of Restrictive Land Supply
on Housing in Hong Kong: An Econometric Analysis, JHR 5(2), 263-291
http://content.knowledgeplex.org/kp2/img/cache/kp/2438.pdf
Change of Use
Consequences
Planning Control
s.16 application
New Supply is limited to New Development
Lease Control
Land premium
Negotiation, government becomes an investor
Building Control
Prescriptive codes
Rigid and difficult to be adapted to other uses
Env. Control
Impact assessments
Tedious and expensive
Development Control Further Limits Land Supply
Development Control Further Limits Land Supply
• Glaeser et al. (2005) argue that the limited supply
response primarily is the consequence of an
increasingly restrictive regulatory environment.
• Wong (2013) contends that the government failed to
convert in time the industrial zoned land to commercial
/ residential zone, is one of the major reasons of
insufficient housing supply in HK.
See Wong, R.Y.C. (2013) 香港深層次矛盾，中華書局
Glaeser, E.L., Gyourko, J. and Saks, R. (2005) Why is Manhattan So Expensive?
Regulation and the Rise in Housing Prices, Penn IUR Publ.
•Glaeser, Edward, and Gyourko, Joseph. The Impact of Zoning on Housing
Affordability. Economic Policy Review 9, No. 2 (2003): 21–39.
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Why Expensive?
Urban
Policies
Specific Descriptions
Monetary
Policy
Money supply is externally
determined - negative real
interest rate causes high
property price
Land Supply
Policy
Land supply is monopolized -
restrictive land supply
Development
Control Policy
Development control is
fragmented and rigid –
inflexible to meet market
changes
Monetary Policy
Land Supply Policy
Development Control Policy
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Systems of Urban Land Policy HK
Systems of Urban Land Policy HK – Economic Efficiency
Monopolized land supply
Monopolized housing supply
Policy and Regulations Enforcement
Monopolized Money Supply
BANKS
/ HKMC Monetary
Policy
- Currency
peg Negative Real
Interest Rate
Private
Housing
Market
HOS (by
lucky draw)
PRH (by
queuing)
Leasehold
Land Policy – high land price,
short tenure, premium system
Discretions
and
Concessions
Housing Policy – high price, high
dense, profit from concessions
Development Control Policy –
Discretionary & Market Oriented
High Income, Low
Expenditure
Self-funded
Infrastructure and amenity
subsidized by land grants
