Optimizing Land Resources for Better Housing Provisions

Hong Kong has been faced with an acute shortage of developable land supply especially for housing provisions in both the public and private sectors. Of the 1108 square kilometers of land in Hong Kong, only 7% of the total land mass has been developed for residential use; and over 40 % of the land is designated as country parks and natural reserves.

Increasing and expediting land supply is fundamental to solving the land and housing problems of Hong Kong. The government currently adopts a multi-pronged strategy to increase land supply in the short, medium and long term.

The Long Term Housing Strategy Steering Committee is tasked to formulate a ten-year programme to deliver 480,000 units up to year 2024-25, with a public-private split of 60:40.

This research study looks into a planning horizon of 25 years, the time span of which is general recognised as one generation. This study will review the housing needs up to 2040 by then the population might reach nine millions (9,000,000) under certain assumptions of the population policy.

It will also ascertain how much land is required to cater for the need of the existing population and the additional population in the order of 1,720,000, the rising aspiration for better living, the anticipated lifestyles and the changing socio-economic conditions.

The land budget under different scenarios will help bureaucrats and the community choose from different options of developable land formation.

Against this backdrop, the main objectives of this study are:

(i)To study the housing needs of Hong Kong up to the year 2040;

(ii)To establish a framework for formulating land budget under different scenarios;

(iii)To formulate criteria for choosing a mix of developable land formation modes, considering the qualitative aspects of the housing needs and land requirements;

(iv)To examine the feasibility of converting deserted agricultural and industrial lands for residential use;

(v)To examine the feasibility of increasing plot ratio of urban sites for housing developments;

(vi)To advocate innovative land administration mechanism for revitalizing urban sites for better housing provisions; and

(vii)To recommend regulatory and administrative measures to enable more affordable housing accommodations in the urban areas.