Following is the transcript of opening remarks by the Secretary for Development, Mr Paul Chan, at a media session on quarterly land sale programme for October to December 2013 today (September 27):
In the coming quarter, the Government will sell by tender eight residential sites and one business site. Together they will be able to produce about 3,300 flats and provide about 62,000 square metres of commercial floor area.
Among the eight residential sites to be put up for sale by the Government in the coming quarter, four are located in Tuen Mun, three in Kai Tak and one in Fo Tan.
In order to better ensure the quantity of flat supply, the Government will require developers to provide a specified minimum number of flats at five sites, two in Tuen Mun and three in Kai Tak. The Lands Department will announce the details before the sites are tendered.
In addition to residential sites, a business site in Kwun Tong will be tendered in the same quarter. The disposal of the Kwun Tong site will help speed up the transformation of Kowloon East into another core business district.
We will continue to proactively increase land supply to meet the market demand. The Government announced the sale of seven and nine residential sites respectively in the first and second quarters, capable of producing about 4,900 flats. In addition, the West Rail property development project at Long Ping Station (South), which can produce about 720 flats, was tendered out in June 2013. Altogether in the first three quarters, the land put up by the Government for sale plus the railway property development project will produce about 8,900 flats in total.
We are also working with the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRC) in revising the scheme of the West Rail property development project at Yuen Long Station, which is planned for tendering in the fourth quarter (i.e. January to March 2014) and could produce about 1,880 flats. In addition, MTRC also indicated in August 2013 that it planned to re-tender its own property development projects at Tai Wai Station and Tin Shui Wai Light Rail Terminus. They also plan to tender the LOHAS Park Package 4 project. These three projects together will be able to produce about 6,000 units.
We will continue to closely monitor the property market and steadily supply housing land to the market.
Ends/Friday, September 27, 2013
Issued at HKT 19:58
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