The entire building is converted to a transition house.

The policy address announced that it will restart the revitalisation of the industrial building policy and set new measures to allow the conversion of the entire industrial building into transitional housing, including the relaxation of the “black room” and “shared kitchen” facilities for the construction of the transitional building. Encourage owners to work with non-government organisations to provide transitional housing to the grassroots. The Task Force of the Transport Bureau will provide one-stop support.

Can build a “black room”

The Government’s policy of providing transitional housing, including the use of the entire industrial building in the “Commercial”, “Commercial”, “Comprehensive Development Area” and “Residential” areas for non-industrial use. Or some floors are used as transitional houses. The Government stated that it would flexibly deal with regulations and other exemptions and exempt the cost of land lease waiver for transitional housing use.

For example, if the owners of the industrial buildings are willing to change the entire industrial building from industrial to transitional estates, they will be exempted from land premiums. As regards the Buildings Ordinance, housing is required to have a kitchen, but the industrial estate transitional estates can be exempted. A shared kitchen is allowed.

Wide building regulations kitchen can share

In terms of lighting and ventilation, some surveyors pointed out that the windows on the four sides of the industrial building can be divided into small rooms to meet the requirements of daylighting; the windowless floor in the center of the industrial building can only be used as a shared space. The source pointed out that in the future, the Buildings Ordinance will be relaxed. As long as the owners of the building can deploy a reasonable size of the shared space for the transitional housing residents, they can be approved for use in the central part of the industrial building. Building a transitional flat without windows.

Lin Jiahui, chairman of the Institute of Housing Policy of the Institute of Surveyors, said that he was pleased to provide the government with a waiver of the regulations. I believe that more industrial buildings owners will agree to the redevelopment. However, he is concerned that if the transition house is converted into a “black room”, it will definitely affect ventilation. It is also concerned with the shared space built around it. The area needs to be reasonable and not too small. He suggested that the government should introduce a pilot scheme, which consists of professionals to approve and renovate applications according to the plans of different industrial buildings.