Early last week, I announced details of the quarterly land sale programme (LSP) for the second quarter of 2015-16. Private housing land supply, which comes from government land sales, railway property development projects and a project of the Urban Renewal Authority (URA), is estimated to have a capacity to produce about 5 100 flats in total. Together with the sites released in the first quarter, the private housing land supply in the first half of 2015-16 has the capacity to provide around 9 600 flats. It is worth mentioning that while this figure has yet to include the supply from private development or redevelopment projects during the period, it has already reached half of this financial year’s private housing land supply target. In addition, the aggregate private housing land supply in 2014-15 had an estimated capacity to produce about 21 200 flats, exceeding the target of 18 800 flats set for 2014-15 by about 13 per cent (or 2 400 extra flats). The aggregate private housing land supply for 2013-14 and 2014-15, estimated to have the capacity to provide about 39 000 flats, also met the combined target of providing 38 800 flats in these two years.
After I made the above announcement, some people commented that the Government could put up only three sites for sale, and hence had to rely on railway property development projects to fill up the gap, thus questioning the Government’s ability to sustain private housing land supply in future. First, I have to emphasise that the West Rail property development project at Yuen Long Station to be tendered during this quarter is a government-owned project, and its implementation schedule is determined by the Government. The site has little difference from other government sale sites. The MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) is the implementation agent. In fact, there are other residential sites in the hands of the Government ready for disposal, on behalf of which rezoning procedures have already been completed, and they will be disposed of in due course. Furthermore, in deciding how many and which sites should be put up for sale in each quarter, we will make a holistic assessment to ensure that the aggregate private housing land supply is capable of providing an appropriate, sustainable and steady number of flats. Let’s take this quarterly LSP as an example. As the MTRCL plans to tender several packages of LOHAS Park, which could provide about 5 600 flats this financial year, with one package (about 1 250 flats) already launched last quarter and another (about 1 430 flats) to be launched this quarter, it is appropriate to tender the remaining packages (about 2 900 flats) in the second half of this financial year. This arrangement can ensure that the MTRCL supplies private housing land in a steady and orderly manner. In fact, considering the private housing land supply target of about 19 000 flats for 2015-16, the private housing land supply should provide about 4 500 to 5 000 flats in each quarter on average. In this quarter, after deducting some 3 430 flats to be provided by the LOHAS Park Package 8 (about 1 430 flats), the West Rail property development project (about 1 880 flats) and the URA project (about 120 flats), the land supply from government land sales should provide about 1 500 flats. Therefore, it is appropriate for the Government to put up three sites for sale capable of providing about 1 650 flats in total in this quarter. Moreover, it should be noted that when I announced the LSP for this quarter, I made it clear that I would not rule out the possibility of adding sites for sale within this quarter – subject to market conditions, progress in rezoning and other items. The aim is to allow more flexibility in land sale for the Government to react swiftly to the actual market situation and demand.
The Government should have a full grasp of the various sources of private housing land supply, and maintain housing land supply in an orderly and flexible manner as far as possible. I hope that the public will fully understand the Government’s land sale arrangements instead of focusing only on the number of sites put up for sale in each quarter. Otherwise, some might make over-generalisations or even misjudgments about the adequacy of private housing land supply.
5 July, 2015
Back