Land Use Practice in a Hyper-Dense City: A Lesson from Hong Kong

Sustainable urban development and land use has been a new agenda for over a decade in the world. Particularly in hyper density cities such as Hong Kong, land use conditions are more complicated and different from general large cities and the conflict between growing demand from urban development and limited land supply is more prominent. To facilitate sustainable land use in hyper density cities, this paper looks into land use conditions/characteristics in such cities by examining Hong Kong’s land use practice as a real case. Firstly, land demand and supply in Hong Kong are both analyzed. Secondly, the statutory and administrative procedures of land development and allocation are reviewed. Finally, problems in the current land use system are also identified and discussed. The findings can serve as a useful reference for specific further research on sustainable land use in compact/high density cities.