Following is a question by the Hon Albert Chan Wai-yip and a written reply by the Secretary for Development, Mrs Carrie Lam, in the Legislative Council today (March 9):
Question:
There have been comments that since the government introduced the nine measures to stabilise the property market (commonly known as "the Nine Measures of Michael Suen") in 2002, the supply of sites for private residential developments through land auction, redevelopment of the old areas and change in land use have plummeted, resulting in a drastic decrease in the number of new private domestic units in recent years. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
(a) the area of the sites supplied annually since 2002 for private residential developments through the three different ways, namely land auction, redevelopment of the old areas and change in land use; and
(b) the respective numbers of private domestic units built and completed, since 2002, on the sites supplied for private residential developments through the three different ways, namely land auction, redevelopment of the old areas and change in land use?
Reply:
President,
Just as the Financial Secretary mentioned in the 2011-12 Budget Speech, the sources of private housing land supply include the housing land sold by the Government, the property development projects of the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL), the urban renewal projects of the Urban Renewal Authority (URA), private development projects subject to lease modification or land exchange and private redevelopment projects not subject to lease modification. The Transport and Housing Bureau (THB) is responsible for monitoring the supply of first-hand private residential flats and publish relevant information regularly.
The way the Administration monitors and records the relevant information is different from the way asked in the question. I now reply to the two parts of the question as follows in accordance with the information currently available -
(a) According to THB's information, the number of residential flats that could be provided by the above five sources of private housing land supply in 2003-10 (THB does not have the relevant information for 2002) is set out at Annex 1.
(b) Depending on the developers' timing and strategy of sales, the flats to be provided by the housing land supply at Annex 1 could largely be completed in three to four years thereafter. Under the existing requirements of the Lands Department's Consent Scheme, pre-sale consent may be granted upon application 20 months prior to the anticipated completion date of the development at the earliest. THB does not have complete information about the private housing land area produced by the above five sources of housing land supply. If THB is required to provide the area of the sites sold by the Government, property development projects of MTRCL and redevelopment projects of URA, THB will have to check the detailed information about all these projects item by item. Due to the considerable number of such cases, it will take quite a long time to compile such information. Furthermore, THB's database does not have the information about the area of private development projects either subject to lease modification or not. On the contrary, as the public's concern about housing land lies in the supply of private residential flats, we are happy to provide the yearly figures of residential flat supply. According to THB's information, the number of private residential flats completed in 2002-10 is set out at Annex 2.
Ends/Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Issued at HKT 15:06
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