Among them, the three commercial sites are Site 4, Area 4C, Kai Tak, the Old Police Married Quarters at Lockhart Road, Wanchai and the Admiralty Gallery commercial site, with the Admiralty Gallery commercial site being the largest at about 1.07 million sq ft.

Asked whether the risk of losing bids would increase if three more commercial sites were launched in the new financial year, Secretary for Development Ms Bernadette Hanning said that the pace of land launch should not be determined by the current situation alone, but rather by preparation for the future, "otherwise, if the sites are launched a few years later and completed a few years later, the timing may be missed.

Ms. Ning continued, "The Admiralty Corridor, which is now in the possession of the government, has completed the rezoning work as early as the end of 2016, and has recently completed the statutory procedures such as road and constitutional gazettal.

The project has been used by tenants, so it is not advisable to "procrastinate" and it is fair to launch it on the market as soon as possible.

As for the old Wanchai Police Married Quarters, there have been twists and turns in the past, with the outline plan affected by a judicial review and delayed for 10 years.

The tender for the commercial site in Kai Tak Area 4C, No. 4, was aborted earlier and H.H. Ninn also said that the site was rezoned to residential but was unsuccessful.

As the project is small in size, there is limited room for further subdivision, so subdivision will not be considered.

She reiterated that when deciding whether to launch a commercial site, one should not only look at the current commercial land situation or the economic environment, and stressed that one must be prepared for the future economic take-off of Hong Kong.

According to Mr Ip Man-kei, Vice President of Unite Hong Kong Foundation, the three commercial sites are located in prime urban areas and have considerable commercial value, but the current office vacancy rate is still high, coupled with the peak supply of commercial buildings in the next few years, a large number of commercial premises are yet to be absorbed.

According to Mr Wong Siu-ki, Director and Head of Greater China Research & Consultancy at Knight Frank, this year will also be a year of "de-stocking" for all types of properties in Hong Kong, especially in the commercial property market, which is expected to be less favourable than the residential and industrial markets in terms of leasing and buying and selling, and some of the commercial sites launched are expected to be at risk of abortive bidding.