Hong Kong will hold its first ever pre-lease of niches this month, with more than 20,000 urn spaces open for application at two new public columbariums, officials said on Thursday.
“We hope to ensure a stable supply of public niches and more venues to choose from,” said Diane Wong Shuk-han, deputy director of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.
The government will accept advance applications from May 15 until June 14 for 21,235 niches in the public columbariums in Tsang Tsui in Tuen Mun, and along Wong Nai Chung Road in Wan Chai.
The two facilities are scheduled for completion by the end of the year. The niches are expected to be available in 2020.
The presale of columbarium niches is a grim mirroring of the presale of flats in Hong Kong, a city starved of space. It is estimated that Hong Kong will face a shortage of 400,000 urn spaces by 2023 as society rapidly ages.
Wong said 40,000 to 50,000 people die in Hong Kong each year on average. The two facilities, along with others in a five-year allocation programme also involving pre-leased niches, would make 192,235 lots available in total – nearly matching the death rate.
The niches, to be allocated on the basis of a 20-year interment period, cost a lump sum of HK$2,400 to HK$3,000 (US$382), depending on size. They are extendable at 10-year intervals upon expiry with a prescribed fee.
“Applicants are advised to pay close attention when filling in the contact details of the related persons, since after 20 or more years, the persons in question might be dead or difficult to contact,” Wong said.
He said private niches would also contribute to supply, although only two licence applications had been approved by the Private Columbaria Licensing Board since the law was changed to regulate private operators last year.
Private niches can sell for as much as HK$300,000.
To increase supply, officials are also promoting the co-location of urns in the coming presale.
Residents willing to put more than one of their relatives’ urns in a single niche, and those who were not given a place in the last allocation, would be accorded priority, the department said.
Of the two facilities, the larger Tsang Tsui Columbarium will provide 163,320 new niches in five phases spanning five years. The lots come in different categories, including standard, smoke-free, non-smoke-free and large, for sharing.
The Wong Nai Chung facility in Wan Chai will hold 855 spaces.
Eddie Tse Sai-kit, of the Alliance for the Concern over Columbarium Policy, said the new public niches announced on Thursday would relieve some pressure in the short term. But he said the government was still playing catch-up because supply had lagged so far behind demand over the years.
Tse pointed out that some private columbariums might fail to obtain a licence under the new requirements, and this could drive existing users to public facilities, further pushing up demand.
Helena Wong Pik-wan, a lawmaker on the Legislative Council’s panel on food safety and environmental hygiene, said district councils were dragging their feet to bargain for more transport and infrastructure around 10 proposed columbariums.
She said the government needed a time frame to account for its strategy to meet demand for niches.
