CK Hutchison Holdings, the flagship company of Hong Kong’s wealthiest man, plans to turn a waterfront dockyard into the city’s second-largest housing enclave, adding much needed supply to the world’s least affordable major urban centre.

Hutchison’s Hongkong United Dockyards Limited (HUD) unit submitted a proposal to the Town Planning Board to erect 15,075 homes on its site and adjacent government land in Tsing Yi. The site, next to the Tsing Ma Bridge, will comprise 10,370 apartments and 4,700 public housing units, HUD said.

“There is a long-term pressing housing need in Hong Kong and HUD hopes to contribute its part to the resolution of housing problems through this proposal”, said a statement by HUD, whose parent Hutchison is chaired by Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, the elder son of tycoon Li Ka-shing. “Under Hong Kong’s current land scarcity situation, HUD believes large-scale industrial land and idled government land can be part of a solution to alleviate Hong Kong’s housing needs.”

The proposal combines HUD’s plot with a piece of idle land owned by the government under the Tsing Ma bridge, using a road to connect the two parcels into a site measuring 19.9 hectares (49.2 acres) overlooking the Ma Wan Channel. The size of the project is second only to the 21,500 homes at Hong Kong’s largest residential enclave, Lohas Park in Tseung Kwan O, and bigger than Hutchison’s Whampoa Garden in Hung Hom, with 10,285 flats.

 Proposed development area

The land value is estimated at HK$22 billion (US$2.8 billion) after the payment of land premium and assuming that the developer is not required to bear the cost of building the public homes, according to CHFT Advisory and Appraisal’s senior director Alex Leung.

Hutchison has not put a price tag on the project, which has not been given a name. The proposal calls for 34 residential towers, each between 27 and 48 storeys, with amenities such as shops, kindergartens, a primary school,, a marina club and social welfare facilities.

Night view of the Whampoa Garden residential enclave in Hung Hom on 11 January 2020, built by Hutchison Whampoa Property in the 1980s.

Public housing will be located in 10 blocks of between 22 and 34 storeys on the plot of land owned by the government, according to the proposal. A 15 metre-wide waterfront promenade will be built to serve both the private apartments and public housing, according to the proposal.

Hutchison bought 50 per cent of HUD from Swire Pacific in August 2021. The site measures 10 hectares, and is currently a so-called brownfield plot used for cement works, open storage and workshops, the application said.

“This is a medium-to-long term planning proposal”, HUD said. “HUD is willing to make suitable arrangements regarding its existing business operations at the appropriate time, with the hope that this will help contribute to the resolution of Hong Kong’s housing problems”.

Whampoa Garden under construction in Hung Hom on 22 June 1988.

Tsing Yi has a residential community and commercial zone on an island that also accommodates heavy industries, a transport interchange, shipbuilding works and dockyards.

“The most [often-heard] criticism of Tsing Yi is its transport and amenities”, which need a government commitment to “upgrade”, said Vincent Cheung, managing director of Vincorn Consulting and Appraisal.

Cheung said more commercial amenities are needed in Tsing Yi, not just a large shopping centre. He also pointed to the logistics warehouses located south of the proposed housing estate, asking whether that is “really suitable”.

The Whampoa Garden residential estate in Hung Hom on 14 February 1994.

The proposed estate will form part of the Harbour Metropolis under the Hong Kong 2030+ territorial strategic planning framework. Under the plan, a new central business district known as CBD3 will be located at the Kau Yi Chau (KYC) artificial islands, about 5 kilometres from HUD’s proposed project.

The low proportion of public housing in the proposal may, however, hamper its approval, said CHFT’s Leung, who pointed to the government’s 2018 housing supply target of 70 per cent.

Leung said he is “not sure if the government will approve it”, adding that its entrance may be near an industrial site, which might affect its sales value.