Hong Kong’s first large-scale Northern Metropolis land disposal tender was designed to test a new public-private partnership model integrating housing, economic transformation and innovation. As the Hung Shui Kiu pilot tender concludes, the market’s response provides insights into investor sentiment and highlights opportunities to strengthen future phases. The key question is how to turn this vision into projects that attract sustained private-sector participation. The tender shows investor...
Residents of the Northern Metropolis, Hong Kong’s future mega township near the border with Shenzhen, can expect bigger living spaces and improved access to recreational areas, according to the city’s finance chief. Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also said the government would make the border town a place “suitable for living, working, studying and leisure”, as part of a wider effort to develop Hong Kong as a “liveable city”. In his weekly blog post on Sunday, Chan added that the Northern...
Dedicated laws designed to fast-track Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis project will not override the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance, the authorities have said. The remarks on Monday followed a meeting of the government-appointed Advisory Council on the Environment, where the main agenda was streamlining procedures and requirements for construction noise permits within the development near the border with mainland China. “The Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance and the dedicated...
Three-legged dogs and one-eyed cats are common sights at a veterinary clinic opened by an animal welfare group in the Fo Tan area of Hong Kong’s Sha Tin district, with some of these animals having been there for so long that the medical centre has become their home. While their injuries or illnesses vary, they share the same painful experience of being displaced by the Northern Metropolis development project, a government blueprint to transform 30,000 hectares (74,132 acres) into a powerful...
China’s new development narrative places science and education at the centre of long-term competitiveness. This is a systemic project powered by technology, grounded in education and driven by talent as the country’s foremost resource. Hong Kong’s traditional identity as an international financial centre is no longer sufficient to sustain the city’s competitiveness. To remain relevant, Hong Kong must articulate a platform that structurally aligns with China’s national strategy while retaining...
Stretches of green farmland and shimmering ponds, winding village roads and sprawling brownfield logistics yards all lend Hung Shui Kiu in the New Territories a patchwork look of rustic Hong Kong standing in stark contrast to its glistening skyscrapers. This rural landscape is slated for radical transformation under the government’s ambitious Northern Metropolis blueprint and is primed to be reinvented as a modernised logistics hub in the near future. However, the premise of this transformation...
Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis is positioned as the city’s next engine of growth – a long-term solution to land supply, economic transformation and cross-boundary integration. Just as importantly, the government has stressed that this massive undertaking will embed nature conservation and urban-rural integration at its core. Yet, a growing contradiction lies at the heart of this vision. The very landscapes that could support a green, sustainable and liveable Northern Metropolis – its remaining...
Part of a network of more than 20 artificial fish ponds in Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis development occupies government land without permission, with a green group warning that materials used at the site also threaten the area’s ecology. The ponds are near the Mai Po Nature Reserve and the Inner Deep Bay wetlands, which have been designated as internationally important under the Ramsar Convention as they are a vital habitat for migratory birds. Some of the ponds also fall within the proposed...
As Hong Kong marks the 29th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule on July 1, the South China Morning Post talks to the city’s senior officials about the administration’s achievements so far and what may lie ahead. The first tender for the university town in Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis will be launched in two months, with successful bidders to be announced after the site formation of the plot is completed by the end of this year, the education minister has revealed. Secretary for...
Hong Kong’s development chief has welcomed collaboration between property developers and industry operators in bids for the Northern Metropolis pilot project, saying the consortium reflected diversity and the government’s aim of pairing the two sectors. Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho made the remarks on Saturday despite the government only receiving two bids for the flagship Hung Shui Kiu project when the tender closed a day earlier. Henderson Land Development submitted a...
The first phase of Hong Kong’s Hetao innovation hub, a key cross-border initiative under the Northern Metropolis megaproject, has been well received, with two of its wet laboratory buildings fully leased, its chairman has revealed. Permanent Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Kevin Choi Kit-ming, who also chairs the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park in the Lok Ma Chau Loop, said on Saturday that more than half of the tenant companies were from mainland China. “As...
As Hong Kong moves forward with its huge new Northern Metropolis development zone, analysts argue the government should take a cautious approach to land sales to help sustain the recent recovery in the residential property market. The large-scale project near the border with the Chinese mainland continues to progress, as the government set a tender deadline for midday on Friday for several plots in the Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen New Development Area. The parcels of land – which comprise three...
The recent visit of Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, carried the task of accelerating the development of the Northern Metropolis. This is not another urban expansion, but a strategic test of whether Hong Kong can reinvent its role in the nation’s innovation landscape. At its core, the Northern Metropolis bears a dual mission. For Hong Kong, it must become a growth engine, creating a third curve of development, beyond finance and real estate, by nurturing original...