**************************************************
Following is a question by the Hon Tony Tse and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, in the Legislative Council today (January 21):
Question:
Given the low occupancy rates of some parking spaces in the car parks under the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) in recent years, HA is taking various measures to improve the utilization of the parking spaces concerned and is converting surplus car-park facilities into other uses. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective average occupancy rates of the monthly parking spaces and hourly parking spaces in HA's car parks in each of the past five years;
(2) whether HA has set targets on the occupancy rates of the parking spaces in its car parks; if HA has, of the details; of the criteria or indicators based on which HA has set such targets; how the occupancy rates of parking spaces mentioned in (1) compare with such targets and of the improvement measures;
(3) of the information on the 10 car parks, among all car parks under HA, which recorded the lowest overall occupancy rates of parking spaces in the past three years (set out in Table 1);
(4) whether it has assessed the causes for the low occupancy rates of the parking spaces in the car parks mentioned in (3); if it has assessed, of the outcome and whether it will take measures to boost the occupancy rates of parking spaces; if it has not assessed, the reasons for that and whether it will conduct such an assessment in future;
(5) of HA's new plans to convert surplus car-park facilities into other uses, and set out, by district and by public housing estate, the number of parking spaces as well as the floor areas and the new uses involved; and
(6) whether HA will conduct a comprehensive review of the cost effectiveness of its plans to change the uses of car-park facilities, including the utilization of the newly added facilities; if HA will, of the details?
Reply:
President,
The primary objective of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) is to formulate and implement public housing programmes to achieve the policy objective of providing public rental housing (PRH) for low-income families who cannot afford to rent private accommodation. The operation of the HA's commercial facilities aims to provide PRH residents with basic facilities and services that serve their daily needs. As residents' needs change over time, the HA will from time to time review the operation of its commercial facilities to meet the residents' needs.
As for the car-parking facility, the HA has been actively improving the efficiency in the utilisation of such facilities in order to meet residents' evolving needs and to make effective use of resources. As at end of 2014, there are 130 carparks under HA, providing a total of about 28 200 parking spaces, amongst which about 25 300 are monthly parking spaces (about 90 per cent) and the remaining 2 900 or so are let out to visitors on an hourly basis.
My reply to the six-part question raised by the Hon Tony Tse is as follows:
(1) The occupancy rates of monthly parking spaces in the HA's carparks for the past five years are set out in Table 2. Regarding the hourly parking spaces, as the utilisation rate varies greatly throughout different time slots in a day and between holidays, etc., it is difficult to work out the overall occupancy rate. As such, the HA does not collect such statistics.
(2) The HA formulates a performance indicator for the occupancy rate of monthly parking spaces in its carparks for every year. The target for 2014/15 is 82 per cent or above. The indicator is set with reference to the occupancy rate of carparks in recent years, the number of newly-built parking spaces and the projected economic situation in the coming year. The overall occupancy rate of monthly carparks has increased annually for the past five years. The letting position during this period was satisfactory, achieving the relevant performance indicators.
(3) Information on the 10 carparks which have the lowest average occupancy rate for the monthly parking spaces in the past three years is set out in Table 3. As mentioned above, the utilisation rate of hourly parking spaces varies greatly throughout different time slots in a day and between holidays etc., the HA does not collect such statistics.
(4) The main reasons for the relatively low usage in the 10 carparks listed in Table 3 include, carparks are located in remote areas of outlying islands and ageing population, such that the residents of the estates or courts concerned do not or rarely have driving habits and needs; some of the carparks cannot be let to non-resident users because of the restrictions in land leases or deeds of mutual covenants; and the surplus parking spaces in some carparks are not suitable for conversion into other uses to improve the utilisation efficiency because of the constraints in the original design of the carparks (e.g. limited height between floors).
As mentioned above, the HA will from time to time review the occupancy rate of and the demand for various types of parking spaces in individual carparks, adopt a flexible approach in letting and make conversion in response to changes in demand. For instance, surplus monthly parking spaces are converted into hourly parking spaces or the types of parking spaces that have a greater demand (such as changing surplus parking spaces for private cars to parking spaces for motorcycles, which are of greater demand). Also, subject to the terms in the vesting orders and land leases of the estates / courts concerned, the HA will seek permissions and waivers from the Town Planning Board and the Lands Department for letting parking spaces to non-resident users in order to maximise the utilisation efficiency of carparks and meet the evolving needs of carpark users so as to ensure the efficient use of resources.
(5) The HA's Commercial Properties Committee has approved several carpark conversion projects since 2006. Those completed projects involved more than 900 parking spaces. After conversion, new spaces of more than 17 000 square metres (Internal Floor Area) were made available for lease to non-government organisations, institutions and commercial tenants, including the Speedpost Hub at Lei Yue Mun Estate Carpark in Yau Tong, welfare facilities at Shek Pai Wan Estate Carpark in Aberdeen, educational institution facilities at Nam Shan Estate Carpark in Shek Kip Mei and retail premises at Ping Shek Estate Carpark in Kwun Tong. These conversion projects are effective in addressing residents' needs for different facilities and services as well as improving the overall utilisation of carpark facilities. The HA will continue to consider converting surplus parking spaces into other suitable uses, having regard to the actual situation of individual carparks.
(6) The conversion of surplus parking spaces into other uses, by the HA after review, improves the efficiency of resources utilisation. The overall occupancy rate of the monthly parking spaces in the HA's carparks increased from 60 per cent in end 2005 (before implementation of conversion projects) to an average of 87 per cent in the first 11 months of 2014. All the converted premises were leased out for the provision of a variety of facilities and services, including welfare services by the above-mentioned non-government organisations, educational facilities by local universities, and retail premises, etc.
Ends/Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Issued at HKT 12:50
NNNN
