As Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said in his maiden Policy Address: "The land shortage has stifled our social and economic development and smothered many opportunities for people to start and expand their businesses. Soaring home prices and rents also affect young couple's plans to marry and start families. This undermines family harmony and can cause potential safety and health hazards."

This paragraph fully reflects the hardship created by the scarcity of land in Hong Kong.

Devoting more than 6,500 words and 42 paragraphs to housing-related issues in his speech, Leung said the government is wracking its collective mind in finding new sites for housing projects. There are 21 short, medium and long-term plans concerning the supply of land, notwithstanding reclamation areas. The address emphasizes a plan to build houses on 1,500 hectares of onshore developable land, with 310 hectares to be used for short-and-medium term projects. The remaining 1,190 hectares are in undeveloped areas in the New Territories.

Once a committee member on the Town Planning Board, I understand the difficulty the government has in opening up new tracts of land. The very first things to tackle are the establishment of a transportation network and environmental protection standards. Then comes construction of the peripheral facilities, including hospitals, schools and police stations. Furthermore, public consultation always serves as the last checkpoint. None of these can be finished in a year or two. The whole process might take several decades to achieve even preliminary results, with immeasurable public money.

To solve housing problems, the government does not necessarily have to start from scratch. It can turn to what is already close at hand. In Hong Kong, 1,400 old industrial buildings are occupying an area of some 2,000 hectares - more than the total area of land desperately sought by the government and proposed in Leung's Policy Address. These buildings are located in disposed sites, ready for construction in various districts all over the city. This means the surrounding communities are already well equipped with essential communal facilities such as transportation networks, fire stations and schools. The relatively mature infrastructure has relieved the government of the trouble to invest a lot of resources to provide new public facilities. Compared with the proposed plan to find new places everywhere and conduct full and complete construction, this is clearly an easier, quicker and more profitable short cut.

The SAR government adopted the policy of revitalizing old industrial buildings three years ago, but has failed to achieve the expected results. One of the main reasons the plan fell short was the restriction on the reconstruction of old factories. Only internal reconstruction is permitted and no modifications or changes to the exterior are allowed. This restriction has limited the revitalization of old industrial buildings, reducing their flexibility in being converted for other uses, commercial or residential.

As far as I'm concerned, if the government could ever loosen the present restrictions and encourage building owners to tear down their buildings and reconstruct them, another 2,000 hectares of prepared sites would be ready for the market. Moreover, the land concerned can undergo new planning and programming, according to the matching communal facilities and making the best use of the under-utilized sites and relieving the problems of land shortage and rising housing demand. The resulted benefits should be instantaneous.

The author is vice-president of the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong.

(HK Edition 02/01/2013 page1)