 | ||
Powerful typhoon nida from south horizons hong kong 2 aug 16
South Horizons (Chinese: 海怡半島) is a private housing estate located at the western end of Ap Lei Chau (a.k.a. Aberdeen Island), in the Southern District of Hong Kong. Developed by Secan Limited, a Hutchison Whampoa associate company, it consists of 34 blocks, ranging in height from 25 to 42 storeys, completed between 1991 and 1995. Census data indicate that South Horizons had a population of 31,496 in 2011 and was the most populated among the private and public estates of the district.
Contents
Description
South Horizons was built in four phases, with Phase I and Phase IV closer to Ap Lei Chau Estate, a public housing estate. The property is currently owned and managed by Hutchison Whampoa Limited. The estate has a total of 9,812 residential units. It has been described as a "middle-class estate", with a median monthly domestic household income of HK$ 54,300 in 2011.
South Horizons covers two of the 17 constituencies of Southern District Council, South Horizons East and South Horizons West. Each of these two constituencies returns one district councillor to the Southern District Council, with an election every four years.
South Horizons has been marketed as Hutchison Whampoa's second "Garden City" project, the first one being Whampoa Garden, completed in Hung Hom in 1991. More than 50 plant species are cultivated there, and a nature trail along the shore features information boards on tree species. In 2004, Phases II to IV received a Silver Award for Landscape Design as part of the Best Landscape Award for Private Property Development.
History
Prior to modern development, the land occupied by South Horizons was occupied by hillside and village houses, farmlands, and a sea bay. It was acquired by Hongkong Electric in 1964, and the Ap Lei Chau Power Station of Hongkong Electric and an adjoining oil depot of Shell Hong Kong Ltd were built subsequently. The power station was in operation from 1968 to 1989. Its generators were relocated to Lamma Power Station, while the operational headquarters of Hongkong Electric remained on the site. The Shell Oil Depot was in operation between 1970 and the late 1980s. In 1973, failure of the foundations of the oil depot led to 3,600 metric tons of heavy marine diesel oil being released into Picnic Bay and Aberdeen Harbour. Shell replaced its Ap Lei Chau depot, together with another one in Kwun Tong District (current site of Laguna City), by a new site opened in 1991 on the south side of Tsing Yi.
Property market
A new computer balloting scheme was put to use at South Horizons to determine the order in which prospective buyers could purchase flats. It was advanced by the government and developers alike as a replacement for the first-come, first-served sales system, which resulted in long queues plagued by disorder and triad intimidation, for example a 1990 incident where 1,000 triad-led men descended upon a sales queue at another Hutchison Whampoa development, Laguna City. Police and the Consumer Council stated in 1992 that the new system "appeared to be working fairly".
In 1995, the ownership structure of South Horizons Phase IV (a.k.a. The Oasis): Hutchison Whampoa Properties: 50%, Cheung Kong (Holdings): 30%, and Hongkong Electric Holdings: 20%. The introduction of 7 blocks of The Oasis on the market in 1995 was one of the largest that year and was followed by analysts as an indication of the state of the market.
All retail space in the estate is provided at the Marina Square West and Marina Square East shopping centres. Hoping to capitalise on the impending opening of the South Horizons railway station, the Taiwanese owner of Marina Square West (Estate Dragon Group) issued eviction notices to 30 small businesses housed in the shopping arcade. More than 1,000 residents of South Horizons staged a demonstration in 2014 against the plan to transform the arcade into a "high-end shopping outlet for mainland tourists" in spite of local needs and shopping habits.
Facilities
Facilities of the housing complex include:
Two shopping centres are located in the middle of the complex: Marina Square West (海怡西商場), managed by Savills and owned by Estate Dragon Group, and Marina Square East (海怡東商場), owned by Hutchison Whampoa.
South Horizons has about five kindergartens. There are also two primary schools: