In response to the announcement made by the Chief Executive in the 2025 Policy Address today (17 September 2025) on adopting a new mindset in urban renewal by exploring the utilisation of newly developed land to take forward the redevelopment of the older urban districts, a spokesperson for the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) said that the URA welcomes these initiatives and will fully support their implementation.
The spokesperson remarked that the Government has been supporting the URA in implementing urban renewal efforts, including the new planning tool for plot ratio transfer recommended by the District Study for Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok, which was promulgated through the issuance of guidelines by the Town Planning Board allowing the transfer of unutilised plot ratio within the same district.
The URA supports the initiatives to explore relaxing the current arrangement to allow cross-district transfer of unutilised plot ratio from redevelopment projects to other districts or even to the New Development Areas (NDAs); as well as to suitably increase the plot ratio of private redevelopment projects, on a pilot basis, for designated areas where there are more pressing redevelopment need, allowing the increased plot ratio to be transferred for utilisation in the Northern Metropolis or other districts, or to be used for offsetting land premium to encourage redevelopment by the private market. The URA expects that these innovative measures will create additional capacity for planning the renewal of densely built old districts, enhance market incentives for redevelopment, and thereby expedite the pace of urban renewal.
The URA also welcomes the new measure of reserving three sites in Kwu Tung North and Fanling North NDAs of the Northern Metropolis for the URA to consider constructing new flats, as replacement units under the “Flat-for-Flat” Scheme in the future. This will introduce greater flexibility in reviewing and enhancing its existing acquisition and compensation mechanisms, and offer property owners affected by redevelopment projects different options to address their diverse needs.
Regarding the planning studies for the Sham Shui Po and Tsuen Wan districts, the URA is formulating the Master Renewal Plans (MRPs) for these two districts and undergoing all necessary technical assessments. The URA expects to present the MRPs to the Government by the end of 2025 for its review of the proposals and orderly planning of the implementation arrangements.
