All the land needed to meet the demand for public housing over the next 10 years has been found, while the government will continue to adopt a multi-pronged strategy to increase land supply, says Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
“We’ve identified all the 330 hectares of land required to provide 316,000 public housing units to meet the demand for about 301,000 units in the coming 10 years,” Lam said in her fourth Policy Address on Wednesday.
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The land for much of the housing units comes from reclamation in Tung Chung, agricultural land and brownfield sites in Kwu Tung North/Fanling North and Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen, and a number of sites that have been rezoned for public housing development.
We’ve identified all the 330 hectares of land required to provide 316,000 public housing units to meet the demand for about 301,000 units in the coming 10 years.
Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, Hong Kong's chief executive
It also includes the reallocation of nine sites at Kai Tak, the Anderson Road quarry site, partial development of the Fanling Golf Course, as well as several brownfield clusters with housing development potential.
As for subsidized units, about 4,700 Green Form Subsidized Home Ownership Scheme flats will be put up for sale in phases next year, with the first batch of some 2,100 flats expected to be launched in May.
The Hong Kong Housing Authority’s Home Ownership Scheme 2020, applications for which closed last month, will provide up to 7,000 apartments. The Urban Renewal Authority assigns the redevelopment project adjacent to eResidence as another starter home project, which is expected to provide about 260 units for sale in 2024.
For families awaiting public rental housing and residents in poor living conditions who have yet to get on the first rung of the housing ladder, the government has committed to providing 15,000 transitional housing units within three years, having already identified land for providing 13,200 units.
The government will also launch a trial scheme to provide cash allowances for low-income families waiting for public rental housing allocation for a prolonged period, and conduct a study on tenancy control for subdivided units.
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In the private sector, the Siu Ho Wan depot site topside development of MTR Corporation is expected to provide about 20,000 residential units in the medium to long term.
Concerning long-term land creation, the government continues to prepare for the planning and engineering studies on the development potential of 220 hectares of reclaimed land at Lung Kwu Tan, and another 220 coastal hectares at Tuen Mun West.
“Due to the impact of the pandemic, we’ve seen a downward adjustment in construction costs and an increase in manpower supply in the construction industry. This is an excellent opportunity to move ahead with land creation and housing construction,” Lam said. “With adequate supply, it’s believed that property prices will gradually stabilize.”
She also pledged to strive for the early start of relevant studies on the Lantau Tomorrow Vision project. The government had secured support from the Legislative Council’s Public Works Subcommittee for the study in May last year, but funding approval is still pending. The funding is for conducting studies on the artificial islands in the Central Waters involving the reclamation of 1,000 hectares and the provision of related strategic transport infrastructure.
“We welcome the government’s initiative to revisit overall public and private projects’ assessment process so as to increase housing supply, but the government should also look into rezoning application procedures and set an achievable timeline for change of land use so more public units can be built to satisfy housing demand,” said Cushman & Wakefield Greater China Chief Executive Chiu Kam-kuen.
The Construction Industry Council welcomed the government’s pledge to continue investing in infrastructure with annual capital works expenditure estimated at more than HK$100 billion (US$12.9 billion) in the next few years. It said the execution of infrastructure in parallel with land creation will increase employment opportunities, boost the economy and improve people’s livelihood.
