Policy Address

17.       Subsequently, the Financial Secretary announced that the Government would put up specific sites on the Application List for sale by auction or tender to increase land supply.  As at end-September, a total of eight sites were sold, of which three were put up for auction by the Government and five were triggered by developers from the Application List.  Altogether, these sites can provide some 4 700 flats.  Taking into account further sites made available through lease modifications and land exchanges with premium paid, as well as projects to be tendered by the MTRCL and URA, and other private redevelopment projects not subject to premium payment, we estimate that a total of 61 000 first-hand private residential units will come on the market in the next three to four years.

18.       In the past 10 years, the average annual take up rate of first-hand private residential flats was 18 500 units.  To ensure a healthy and stable property market, in the next 10 years, on average land needs to be made available annually for some 20 000 private residential flats.  I need to stress that this is not a fixed target for residential flat production.  Our aim is to build up a sufficiently large land reserve over a period of time to ensure stable land supply for the residential property market.  In particular, we need to make available sufficient land for building small and medium residential flats to keep their prices stable.

19.       To achieve this objective, the Financial Secretary will chair a “Steering Committee on Housing Land Supply” to co-ordinate the efforts of the departments concerned.  This will ensure that issues relating to housing land will be dealt with as a matter of priority to guarantee a stable and adequate supply of such land.  Members of the committee will include heads of bureaux and departments.

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