The current-term Government fully understands the serious mismatch between the supply and demand of land in our society. The shortage of land supply has led to many problems such as high property prices and rents, a long queue of more than 260,000 applicants on the Public Rental Housing (PRH) Waiting List, people being forced to live in sub-divided units in industrial buildings, and insufficient land for various community and social welfare facilities. Last week, many people queued up in the rain to submit applications under a new round of the Home Ownership Scheme, reflecting the aspiration of members of the public to own their homes. Indeed, I am deeply moved. In his Policy Address, the Chief Executive proposes to increase the supply of subsidised sale flats by engaging public or non-profit-making organisations including the Housing Authority (HA), the Hong Kong Housing Society, the Urban Renewal Authority and the Hong Kong Settlers Housing Corporation Limited, as well as introducing proposals such as conversion of suitable flats among HA’s PRH developments under construction for sale to Green Form applicants in the form of a pilot scheme. These initiatives are proof of the Government’s endeavour to address the demand for housing and underline its resolve to provide more choices and home ownership opportunities for low- and middle-income families. In order to meet the pressing demand for affordable housing we must continue our efforts to substantially increase land supply through short, medium and long-term measures.
Over the past two years or so, the Government has been adopting a multi-pronged approach to implement a series of measures to increase land supply in the short, medium and long term on all fronts. Regarding large-scale development projects for long-term land supply, I have already mentioned them several times in My Blog and I shall not repeat here. We will continue our efforts at full steam ahead. Facing the huge housing demand in the short to medium term, we are just as restless as those looking forward to PRH allocation or home ownership. Land use rezoning and increasing development intensity and crucial means to increase and expedite the short- to medium- term housing land supply. The rezoning of the some 150 sites identified with potential for housing development has commenced in phases. We have initiated the rezoning of 45 sites, which represents about one-third of the total, over the past year. Statutory rezoning procedures of nine sites have been completed, while plan amendments for another 11 sites have gone through related planning procedures and are pending the approval of the Chief Executive in Council. Such progress reflects the substantial difficulty of our rezoning work. This year, we will continue to take forward the rezoning and other required procedures as planned. If the some 150 sites are to be made available on time within the five-year period from 2014-15 to 2018-19 for production of about 210,000 flats, of which over 70 per cent will be subsidised housing, we need public support and the concerted efforts of the local community to resolve any problems that may arise.
I have to stress that the Green Belt sites which we have proposed to rezone are not country parks, but are areas close to existing developed areas or next to public roads, or on the fringe of urban areas and new development areas, with relatively lower buffer and conservation values. The 70 sites with a total area of over 150 hectares represent only 1 per cent of the total area of Green Belt in Hong Kong, and certain sites were disturbed, once cottage or borrow areas. The rezoning of these sites will provide more than 80, 000 flats, of which over 70 per cent will be subsidised housing.
We are doing our best to expedite land supply. During this process, all existing land planning and development procedures will not be compromised. We will ensure that no unacceptable impact will be inflicted on traffic, the environment, conservation or air ventilation, also that greening guidelines and tree preservation are observed. However, if we ignore public demand for housing due to minor impacts on views, traffic congestion or quality of the environment, we must ask ourselves whether these problems are more serious than leaving a lot of people crammed in small units.
To solve our acute housing problems, the Government will continue to communicate with all sectors of the community and explain its development plans. By so doing, we hope that everyone will understand the root of the problems and together we will consider the facts, seek a solution and make a choice. We cannot keep dodging the question and waste our precious time.
18 January, 2015
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