Property speculators are those who invest in different kinds of properties such as residential properties, offices, shopping malls and so on. They buy the property at a low price but sell it at a high price and the difference between two prices is their profit. This essay will focus on only one type of speculators – property developers and their role in urban change. Property developers who buy a piece of land and build offices or housings and then sell to the public to gain profit. Urban change is the impact of urbanization. Urbanization means the percentage increase in the urban population.
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When the urban population increase much more than that of rural areas, urbanization occurrs. In general, urban change is the change in all urban development, including outward expansion, upward expansion, urban encroachment and urban renewal. This essay will focus on these four changes in Hong Kong. There are two main factors leading to the urbanization in Hong Kong. In the 1950s, there were many wealthy Chinese moved to Hong Kong illegally due to the civil war. After 1997, the SAR government launched a new migration scheme which allows 150 mainland residents move to Hong Kong every day.
According to Census and Statistics Department, the percentage of net migration to total population increased is 71. 5% in 2005. The problem of not enough housing estates for the rapid growth in population arosed. Other than that, the growing number of locals moved from rural areas to urban which led to rural-urban migration. The reason behind is that in rural areas, there are lack of community facilities and medical service which are the push factors. The developers, however, provide many attractions to attract people live in urban area.
For example, Harbour One ,which is built by Emperor Ivestment Limited and located in Hong Kong Island West, is highly accessible by buses, minibuses, trams and West Island Line. It provides an excellent quality of the property and club house facilities. Residents can enjoy the superb views of Victoria Harbour. There are also many well-known traditional secondary schools nearby such as King’s College and Ying Wa Girl’s School. With a nice living environment, plenty of facilities and a high living standard in urban area, more people are eager to move to urban area.
This causes a further increase in urban population and adverses the problem of inadequate living space. To deal with the problem mentioned above, the property developers therefore create much residential land use. In the 1960s, Tin Shui Wai and Admiralty were for fishery and military port respectively. But in the early 2000s, the developers turned the originally land uses to residential, recreational and commercial land use which enlarged the size of the urban areas. Besides, the economy in Hong Kong is at its peak before 1997. The demand for commercial land use was high.
The property developers urged the government reclaim Victoria Harbour to obtain more land for building more commercial buildings and offices which are profitable. One of the significant example is Chek Lap Kok airport which is reclaimed from the sea to facilitate the economic growth. These show that the property developers expand outwards to get more land and it leads to urban change. There is another way of outward expansion and that is the expansion of built-up area into rural areas. That means originally the land is used for agriculture but the developers convert them into urban land uses.
Tai po is a good example to illustrate this point. In the 1950s, Tai Po was a piece of agricultural land and a peaceful country side. With the rapid growth of the population, the areas of originally land use decreased. But at the same time, the residential and commercial land use increased. It shows that the developers develope the rural areas as new towns and became an urban area. This situation is called urban encroachment. The phenomenaes of urban encroachment in Hong Kong are developing new towns and building low density residential areas.
The government in 1970s decided to develop new towns in the New Territories to catch up with the increased demand for urban land. The property developers thought that it was worth developing new towns with the government because the projects were profitable. The developers bought much land in the proposed new town sites and converted the land uses into urban land uses. Hence in the new towns, there are housing and industrial estates like Yuen Long Industrial Estate, shopping areas and many recreational facilities for the residents there.
To link up new towns and downtowns, the government built many roads, tunnels nd railways etc on rural land. Because of more convenient transport networks and nice living environment, many people would like to live in suburban areas. So the property developers built low density residential estates in these areas like Palm Springs to earn money. Suburbanization occurrs when increasing number of people move from downtowns to suburban areas to live. In 2001, nearly half of the citizens live in the New Territories which is three times in 1971. These prove that the property developers are responsible for urban encroachment which is a kind of urban changes.
As the land in Hong Kong is limited to expand outwards, the property developers also expand the upwards. High-rise buildings provide more living flats for people and allow more economic activities. The skyscrapers are mainly situated along Victoria Harbour. Sun Hung Kai Properties developed International Finance Centre which is composed of a shopping centre and commercial hub. It consists of two towels One ifc and Two ifc with 39 storeys and 88 storeys respectively. Internation Commerce Centre is with 118-storey and used as commercial offices, hotels, shopping centre and sightseeing spot.
It is the tallest building in Hong Kong. Apart from commercial buildings, there are many high-rise builings which is residential land use. The residential properties like Coastal Skyline in Tung Chung has 50 storeys and Metro Harbour View in Sham Shui Po also has 45 storeys. Developing high-rise buildings is popular in Hong Kong as it is a good way to ease the problem of not enough land. It is one kind of urban changes as well. In addition to the changes above, there is still one more kind of urban change – urban renewal which is also named as urban redevelopment.
It aims to improve the living environment in old disticts and use the land more effectively. It is not only carried out by the government, but also involved the participation of property developers. There are four major strategies for urban renewal, they are redevelopment, preservation, revitalization and rehabiliatation. For example, Shanghai Street in Mong Kok were mixed land use before redevelopment. The density is high, and there were lots of environmental problems. After jointly redeveloping by the government and
Great Eagle Holdings Limited, Langham Place is built in the same area and with lower density. The environmental problems are less serious. Preservation is to preserve some buildings with unique historical and cultural value. Western Market has some architectural features that worth to be preserve. Although the property developer carried out a redevelopment project on it, the chatacteristics are still retained. Revitalization is to retain the original architectural features of the building and improve the living environment. Li Chit Street is a good example of it.
Rehabilitation is to maintain the buildings in the old district. Many property developers who bear social responsibility assist the owners to improve the built environment. ‘Blue House’ which is located inWan Chai is the result of rehabilitation with the help of property developers. These reflect that the property developers join hands with the government to redevelop the urban areas which contribute much to the urban change. Property developers as speculators involve much in the production of the built environment. They do much that affect the urban environment and lead a great change in uban areas.
They expand outwards not only with the urban areas but also develop the rural areas when they find that most of the land in urban areas are well-developed. Moreover, they expand upwards by developing many high-rise building in Hong Kong to satisfy the needs of increased population. Furthemore, the property developers develop the rural areas like building housing and industrial estates there which leads to urban encroachment. They also contribute much to urban renewal which helps to improve the urban environment. All these mentioned show that the property developers, as speculators play an important role in urban change.
