Hong Kong's Gating Machine

Abstract

Scholars have identified ‘gating machines’ or ‘gating coalitions’ that promote gated communities. Hong Kong's high-rise housing estates in the private sector are extremely gated. Evidence presented in this paper suggests the proposition that public ownership of land, Hong Kong's land leasehold system and the government's fiscal interest in generating maximum revenue from land sales play a pivotal role in explaining gatedness. The big developers prefer and pay premiums for large sites that permit mixed use developments and high site intensity, which by use regulations are required to be gated, while their property management subsidiaries also promote gating because such estates are cheaper and easier to manage. Thus, the extent of gatedness is largely the consequence of Hong Kong's use of land as a resource, its built form, the nature of its real estate and property management industries, and the articulation of these factors.

Keywords::

• Gated communities
• Hong Kong
• gating coalition
• neighbourhood
• housing policy
• urban planning

Acknowledgements

This paper has been funded by the University Grants Committee of the Hong Kong SAR (Project Number 1442/06H). I am indebted to Ms Cheung Hoi Yee for her help in conducting and analysing the interviews. I am most grateful to the many busy professionals who gave their time generously to participate in what were often lengthy interviews.

Notes

¹ See http://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/, Table 193: Government Revenue, accessed 8 January 2013.