Page 85 - URA Annual Report 2021-22

New Strategies to Promulgate a Culture of Preventive Maintenance
To tackle the problem of a lack of building rehabilitation awareness among others and to achieve the long-term objective of self-initiated maintenance amongst building owners, a step-by-step approach is crucial.
Our foremost priority is to motivate the building owners to carry out repair and maintenance works proactively to upkeep both structural integrity and serviceability of the building as a whole as well as internal units. Promotional efforts have also been stepped up to instill in owners and the industry the concept of preventive maintenance to maintain the building in good condition.
To achieve this, we studied local and overseas practices and compiled template of maintenance manual and plan to be adopted in the URA’s self-developed projects. This aims to test the practicability of the template and to promote a wider application to the buildings across the city. We have also applied the design of a maintainability checklist in our self-developed projects, and will extend such practice to our joint-venture projects, before promoting to private buildings.
In addition, we finalised the proposed clauses for implementing preventive maintenance and facilitating owners’ regular contribution to the special fund for future maintenance, which will be incorporated in the Deed of Mutual Covenant (DMC).
We will test the preventive maintenance measures in the second phase of eResidence to be launched next year. Guidelines and regulations will be added to the DMC requiring owners to draw up a regular maintenance plan for the building and set money aside as reserves for future execution of the maintenance plan.
Based on our experience and insights in promoting building rehabilitation, we will work with the property management industry to develop a standard manual of building maintenance for new development projects. Such manual will help owners of these private buildings to draw up regular maintenance plans by the time when they move into the new property. With these strengthened promotional efforts in place, we look forward to boosting confidence among building owners in carrying out preventive maintenance.
Twenty Years and Beyond
20 years marks a significant milestone for the URA. As we ventured beyond the 20th anniversary, the URA commits to press ahead with urban renewal works and progressively increase the number of redevelopment projects in its Corporate Plan. In the next five years, we have included 10 new redevelopment projects covering 137,000 square metres of land, and are expected to yield over 13,400 new residential units.
In view of more land will be required for undertaking these urban renewal work, the URA has to focus its resources on taking up more large-scale challenging redevelopment projects which have the potential of creating greater benefits to the community, but less appeal to private market participation. A sound financial plan must thereby be in place to ensure sufficient resources are adequate to meet the substantial acquisition costs incurred in these projects. To achieve this, we will make cash reserves flexible by completing the initial planning and design of new projects as early as possible, as well as arranging loan facilities in advance in the event of any possible shortfall of funds and when available resources have been exhausted. We will also improve project returns by incorporating the under-utilised streets in the vicinity of the project areas into our master development plans, and advance restructuring and replanning of land uses with the application of new planning tools, so as to achieve the optimum utilisation of the residual plot ratios for redevelopment.
Urban renewal has always been full of opportunities and challenges. As we embark on this long but rewarding journey of urban renewal, the URA will go from strength to strength, forging ahead to sustain our urban renewal mission and turn Hong Kong into a smart and liveable city for our and future generations.
URA ANNUAL REPORT 2021-22 79
Management Discussion and Analysis Projects at a Glance Corporate Governance