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Figure 19. Vacancy rate of private flatted factories

Source: Rating and Valuation Department.

Indeed, as highlighted in our first Research Report, the demand
for industrial space has been so strong that the Development Bureau
had stopped receiving applications for the scheme “Optimising the Use of
Industrial Buildings”, as the Bureau found that “more and more economic
activities as well as a number of emerging industries choose to run
business in industrial buildings, such as showrooms, data centers, research
and development / test centers, cultural and creative arts studios and even
2
hydroponics or aquaculture farms” in their latest review of industrial land.

Overall, the persistently falling vacancy rates for different types of
properties testify that our business operators and entrepreneurs, wherever
practical and commercially viable, have already been optimising originally
inefficiently used spaces. Hong Kong urgently needs more developable land
to produce space for our economy to sustain vibrancy and prosperity.

2.3 Social Needs: Healthcare Capacity

as an Illustration

Compared with commercial real estate, the demand for land to
support capacity expansion is clearly more prominent and pressing from
the social sector. To illustrate the urgency of such social needs, one only
needs to review the chaos in our public hospitals during the winter surges

2. “Report on 2014 Area Assessments of Industrial Land in the Territory”.

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