Time to sink Hong Kong cruise terminal for housing

The Kai Tak neighbourhood has proved to be a popular residential district and surely, when homes are badly needed, we have waited long enough for the underused HK$8b facility to take off

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The Kai Tak Cruise Terminal in Kowloon City sit largely underused, still waiting to reach economic potential. Alex Lo suggests rather than waiting for future benefit, use the land to deal with the housing crisis now. Photo: Roy Issa

Published: 12:33am, 8 Mar 2018Updated: 12:33am, 8 Mar 2018

Another week, another bright redevelopment idea from the government’s Task Force on Land Supply. This time, it is bulldozing Tuen Mun’s River Trade Terminal, which is used for cargo moving between Hong Kong and ports in the Pearl River Delta.

The terminal, according to the task force, handles just 3 per cent of Hong Kong’s total container throughput, but takes up 65 hectares. Its 49 berths are underused and the port is only operating at 24 per cent of capacity.

There is just one catch. Many specialised industrial facilities would need to be relocated, possibly to a new reclaimed area. It could be 15 to 20 years before the site is made suitable for housing 60,000 people in 22,000 flats.

It sounds like a long shot. But while we are talking about taking down terminals, why not target that seriously underused Kai Tak Cruise Terminal? I know that’s heresy and will probably get me burned at the stake by government officials. But I feel I am in good company, as my Post colleague Jake van der Kamp has suggested plugging that financial sinkhole called Disneyland and use the site to build homes.

Consider the government’s auditor report from last year. Costing HK$8 billion-plus, the terminal, which covers about 8 hectares, enjoyed just 105 days in 2016 when there was a ship alongside either one of its two berths, leaving them idle for nine months.