Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Development, Mr Paul Chan, at the question-and-answer session of the media session on quarterly land sale programme for October to December 2013 today (September 27):
Reporter: Will you reserve any of those sites for Hong Kong residents?
Secretary for Development: At the moment, none of these sites will be added with the "Hong Kong Property for Hong Kong People" condition. As I mentioned earlier that the Development Bureau is working with the DoJ (Department of Justice) in terms of considering legislating this particular requirement. So, the matter is under close study at this stage.
Reporter: Is the aim to have affordable housing? Will you restrict luxurious housing being built on those sites?
Secretary for Development: Well, as I said, out of these eight sites, five sites will be with a minimum flat number production requirement. That shows the Government's determination in supplying small to medium-sized units to the market.
Reporter: Would you say that you have met your target 13 000 flats this year and what kind of challenges do you expect coming ahead next year?
Secretary for Development: We are relatively optimistic about meeting the target of 13 600 flats in terms of government land sale. But let's backtrack a little bit and take a look, the target land supply of private sector of the government is on average 20 000 units a year. These compose different sources: government land sale, railway development projects, Urban Renewal Authority projects, lease modifications as well as private sector redevelopments. So we cannot just focus on government land sale. In fact, we have been monitoring very closely the supply from these various sources. At the moment, we are working very hard to meet this particular target.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Friday, September 27, 2013
Issued at HKT 23:48