Social Association: Industrial building modification can benefit more than 10,000 people
The new Policy Address proposes to renovate the entire industrial building as a transitional house to alleviate the supply of land and housing in Hong Kong. The Social Welfare Association published a research report yesterday and welcomed it. It is believed that the industrial buildings located in commercial or residential areas and single ownership are easier to modify.
Hu Jialu, director of the Social Welfare Community Organization, said that the Social Consultation Committee has proposed a policy framework for allowing the conversion of industrial buildings for transitional housing in the Policy Address. Parallel with the professional bodies selected three different types of industrial buildings for transitional housing projects. . The three industrial buildings have been priced by an average number of qualified contractors and found to have an average cost ranging from about $50 million to about $200 million. The cost of conversion for each of the three industrial buildings is similar to 600,000. To 700,000 yuan, if the conversion of an industrial building transitional house can be operated for 10 years, the monthly cost per unit is at least 5,000 yuan, which is similar to the cost of pure construction cost of the social housing project.
If a building can release a median of 150 units as a benchmark, a single industrial building has been successfully converted and implemented as a transitional house for 10 years. During the estimated period, each unit can have three to four families transferred. One building can benefit 450 to 600 families. If the calculation can provide up to 18,000 family units for 4 people, the number of beneficiaries can reach more than 70,000. The study also found that the existing 124 industrial buildings in the urban area are relatively easy to refit. They are mainly located in Kwun Tong, Kowloon Bay, San Po Kong, Tai Kuk Tsui, Cheung Sha Wan, Wung Chuk Hang and Kwai Chung.
The study also showed that as of June 2018, there were nearly 280,000 applications on the Waiting List, and the average waiting time for general applicants was 5.3 years. The situation of four or more families was particularly serious. At the same time, the population of residential units in the territory has reached 210,000, of which about 10,000 live in industrial buildings, and the per capita living area has dropped to 5.3 square meters. It can be seen that the problem of grassroots housing in Hong Kong has reached a tipping point.