With Hong Kong’s housing prices still showing no sign of abating, it seems that government officials are looking everywhere for more land to fulfill the demand for affordable housing, including farmland, golf courses, sea reclamation and maybe even protected country parks. Everywhere, that is, except for old industrial areas.

At the end of 2012, Hong Kong had about 17.1 million square metres of flatted factory space, most of it built in the 1970s and 1980s. Although only 5 percent of this was officially vacant, much of this space is in fact being underutilized or used for non-industrial purposes such as back-offices, storage spaces, and artists’ studios.

In many other cities, disused factory buildings have been converted into homes. This brings notable environmental benefits as the re-use of existing buildings cuts down on construction waste, consumes fewer resources, and revitalizes existing parts of the city so that green areas can be preserved.

In Hong Kong, this would also provide homes in areas not far from existing urban centres rather than in distant suburbs where residents would have long commutes. However, while the idea of converting factory buildings to residential uses has been circulating amongst local policy-makers for at least a decade, despite their efforts, the government has not been able to make it a reality.

In 2002, the Planning Department conducted a study on the possible conversion of industrial buildings into loft apartments, and concluded that it was not financially viable to do so because of the land use conversion premiums that a land owner must pay to the government upon switching to a more profitable land use.

Not much was done until 2009, when then-Chief Executive Donald Tsang announced an incentive scheme to waive land premiums for the duration of a building’s life cycle in cases of adaptive reuse. The next administration continued this policy. In his January 2013 policy address, the new Chief Executive, Leung Chun-ying proposed to further ease restrictions on modifications to exterior walls.

However, in the last three years, the Lands Department has approved just 57 applications for conversion of industrial buildings, most of which were transformed into offices, restaurants, shopping centres, or hotels. Officials have stated that conversion to homes is much more challenging due to the difficulty of meeting building regulations for natural lighting and ventilation, which are more stringent for residential buildings than for commercial ones. Fulfilling the requirements might require the prohibitively expensive demolition of significant portions of the building.

To simplify the issue, the problem is basically one of geometry. Hong Kong’s building regulations have very specific window requirements for residential units. Namely, windows must have an unobstructed view for a certain distance, all kitchens and bathrooms must have windows, and no part of a room can be located more than 9 metres from a window. These regulations explain why practically all residential towers in Hong Kong built since the 1970s are relatively narrow, and either cruciform, H, or Y-shaped.

In contrast, flatted factory buildings are bulky, rectangular blocks. A typical factory floor-plan consists of individual units located on either side of a central corridor, meaning that each unit has windows only on one, or in the case of corner units, two sides. These units tend to be quite large, so that even if converted into open-plan style apartments, parts of the unit may be farther than 9 metres from a window.

While the regulations were put in place for good reason, they are extremely rigid and outdated. Many office buildings would fail the residential window requirement, but if it is safe for people to work in such buildings for 8 to 12 hours a day, why would it be unsafe to live in them?

Likewise, the requirement for all bathrooms and kitchens to have windows was created at a time when the vast majority of homes cooked with liquid petroleum gas canisters and used individual gas water heaters in the bathrooms. A gas leak in an enclosed space was potentially very dangerous. With modern water heaters, electric hot plates, and mechanical ventilation systems, windows are no longer as necessary for safety.

Overseas experience has shown that industrial to residential conversion can be done safely and that residences can in many cases co-exist alongside light industrial activities such as printing or food processing. Loft-style apartments in former industrial districts are even considered highly desirable in cities such as New York and London. The real obstacles to the conversion of industrial buildings are not safety and hygiene, but bureaucratic inflexibility and official inertia.

A set of regulations that is more adaptable to specific situations and where buildings are evaluated on the basis of performance rather than adherence to prescriptive requirements would go a long way towards facilitating building conversions. Unfortunately, the reform of the Buildings Regulations is not on anyone’s political agenda.

As is often the case in Hong Kong, present day needs are being hamstrung by old rules which rarely, if ever come under review. Hong Kong’s government is excellent at following existing procedures, but rarely innovates unless the impetus comes from the top.