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As mentioned, we will increasingly rely on rezoning to supply flats going forward. Nevertheless, in terms of the
length of a development, there is a striking contrast between sites that were sold from public tenders and those
that were from rezoning by private developers.

Two completed projects, namely Double Cove and Wings IIIA and IIIB, were used as examples for illustration purpose. Double
Cove, a project developed via rezoning by the developer, took at least 23 years to be completed. In comparison, Wings IIIA and
IIIB, a project developed on sites sold via public land sale, took only 5 years to be completed. The difference is attributed to the
long time that it takes to make the land developable before construction starts.

The development of Double Cove can be dated back to the 1990s when the developer acquired the farmland in Wu Kai Sha.
As the site was originally zoned under its respective Outline Zoning Plans (OZPs) for non-residential purpose, amendments to
the OZPs need to be applied and granted for housing development. The OZP was approved by Town Planning Board (TPB) in
1997. Under Hong Kong’s land administration policy, besides from dealing with the TPB, developers also need to separately
apply to the LandsD for a lease modification application and pay a land premium to the Government when the lease modification
conferred an increase in land value. The process often involved lingering debates and negotiations between the developer and
the Government. In the case of Double Cove, the lease modification and land premium negotiation process took an additional
12 years and was finally settled in 2009. The project started construction in 2010 and was completed in phases until 2016. In
other words, almost 20 years were spent on the land development process, mainly on land rezoning, lease modification, and
land premium negotiation.
Meanwhile, for Wings IIIA and IIIB, the developer purchased the sites directly through public tender in 2011 and 2012. The
construction commenced in 2013, and was completed in 2016.

To gauge the level of effort and result according to the units that could be supplied from the project and the time spent on
developing the project, we may divide the total number of units against the number of years for it to be developed to get the
housing yield. Double Cove is a project of 3,500 units which took 23 years to be developed, so the housing yield is 152 units per
year. The same figure for Wings IIIA and IIIB is 205 units per year.

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