Urban Renewal Authority 2018-19 Annual Report

71 MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS projects respectively during the year to 30 June 2019. Construction costs, meanwhile, though largely steady in the last few years, remain high (see Figure 2). Meanwhile, the URA has kept in view the effectiveness of the Demand-led Pilot Scheme, which began after the Urban Renewal Strategy was issued in 2011 in an effort to harness the collective willingness of owners to help initiate urban renewal themselves. The refinements in 2014 were not conducive to the scheme’s overall objectives and the scheme is now being reviewed holistically under the strategic Yau Mong District Study (YMDS) with a view to creating a greater planning impact by adopting a planning-led approach without compromising owners’ demands. In response to an invitation from the Government, the URA has identified two clusters of suitable Civil Servants’ Co-operative Building Society (CBS) Scheme sites as pilot projects for implementation, subject to the approval of the Financial Secretary, in order to release their redevelopment potential and increase housing supply. The experience gained from these two pilot projects will help to establish an efficient policy and procedure for the implementation of future CBS projects. District-based Approach By commencing a grouping of six projects in To Kwa Wan, the URA has taken a monumental step toward optimising the potential from larger clusters of dilapidated buildings in need of redevelopment. This can achieve more meaningful urban renewal benefits through the creation of a more community-friendly environment with a refined urban grid and appropriate land usage. It is important that this district-based approach ushers in alternative development outcomes which provide a tangible reflection of people-first urban renewal, designed with the community in mind. The Operating Review of this report introduces the district-based approach and provides details of these To Kwa Wan projects and their related planning and social gains. To optimise the planning benefits from our redevelopment projects, the URA is now promulgating a shift in its urban renewal focus from the traditional project-led approach to a more holistic planning-led approach to urban renewal. Based on this approach, district-based and integrated “5R” projects can only be properly designed after comprehensive planning strategies for the sites and the surrounding areas have been carried out. The URA commenced the YMDS in 2017. Previous urban renewal studies have sought to identify isolated redevelopment and other opportunities under the “4Rs”. The brief to the YMDS, however, is an altogether new paradigm aimed at achieving holistic urban renewal by exploring new Institutional and Implementation strategies integrating the “5Rs” with a temporal progression. Upon the completion of the study, the YMDS will formulate feasible and financially sustainable projects as part of a wider set of district-based renewal strategies under the “5R” initiatives which can be readily replicated in other older districts. 0 50 100 150 Pric Year 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 Index Figure 2: Quarterly Construction Tender Price Index 2001 - 2019* 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Year Q1 2001 Q1 2002 Q1 2003 Q1 2004 Q1 2005 Q1 2006 Q1 2007 Q1 2008 Q1 2009 Q1 2010 Q1 2011 Q1 2012 Q1 2013 Q1 2014 Q1 2015 Q1 2016 Q1 2017 Q1 2018 Q1 2019 *Rider Levett Bucknall, Quarterly Construction Cost Update, June 2019