Hong Kong Land Policy for Bus Depot Allocation: a Valuation Analysis

Abstract

There is a looming public interest in the land administration dimension of local transportation infrastructure redevelopment. Such interest is conditioned by the belief that franchised public bus companies were able to obtain government leasehold land parcels on favourable terms. By scrutinizing the land title documents using professional valuation techniques and available internal government documents, this paper provides further and better information for evaluating the proposition that the land parcels for depots were obtained on favourable terms from the government. This interdisciplinary paper identifies the actual sources and methods the franchised China Motor Bus and Kowloon Motor Bus obtained depots from the land market to develop and change their use. It also investigates if there is any evidence of government concessions in terms of land values and development permissions. The findings refute the conspiracy thesis that there are such concessions. The case of the franchised public bus companies in Hong Kong should be of wider academic interest not only because, unlike counterparts in many parts of the world, they have been making profits without direct government subsidies. This does not only shed light on whether or not there was any implicit assistance informed by the corollary of the Coase Theorem, but also the conditions for public bus and other public transport modes are able to provide viable alternatives to private transport.