Cave, Sweet Cave…Hong Kong Style

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Published Date 11/28/2017

Hong Kong, a 427 square mile region of the People’s Republic of China, has some of the most expensive real estate on the planet. The average Hong Kong home costs $1.8 million U.S.—$1,500 per square foot.

As with other real estate markets, scarcity pushes prices higher; much of Hong Kong has unbuildable steep hills, and 41% of its land mass is covered by country parks.

Height restrictions limit the number of units developers can squeeze into the City’s many high-rise residential buildings, so the city’s engineers are now looking down—as in down below ground.

Because all the flat, buildable land is already occupied by office and residential buildings, engineers are considering the feasibility of placing parking structures, data storage centers, sewer and water treatment facilities and storage facilities.

The idea of moving certain facilities belowground in specially built caverns is not new. Norway’s underground Gjøvik Olympic Cavern Hall, built in 1975 but updated in 1995, can host 5,500 people in its pool and ice hockey facility. Hong Kong already has a subterranean water treatment facility encompassing 424,000 cubic feet.

The price tag for these grand plans isn’t cheap: rock cavern excavation alone can cost $250 per cubic foot, and the construction can add $320 to $450 per cubic foot. A 12-car garage cavern would carry a price tag of over $7 million.

Hong Kong has already set aside hundreds of millions of dollars for these projects, but they don’t proceed quickly. A second sewage treatment plant has made its way through the design phase, but construction won’t begin before early 2019. More elaborate projects are likely to be decades-long.

Will there come a time when sky-high real estate prices aboveground will make living underground a realistic possibility? In people-dense Hong Kong, there may be some wealthy, reclusive industrialists who will opt for such a lifestyle. Here in the U.S., however, we are likely to continue enjoying the view from our front window—even if the view is just another high-rise apartment building.

Source: Wired

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