My Take | Housing policy will make or break new administration
Next leader must confront vested interests from rural strongmen to big developers and entrenched ideologues like environmentalists
When asked about the long queue for a public housing unit yesterday, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying commented sagely that the only way to address the problem was to increase land supply. The cruel irony could not have escaped him.
Here is a sunset government that has banked on its legacy for having confronted head-on the city’s long-standing housing shortage. Yet, the latest figures from the Housing Authority show that the waiting time – at four years and eight months – for public housing has jumped by a full year in the past 12 months, making it the biggest annual leap since Leung took office in 2012. It’s the first time in 13 years that families have had to wait more than four years for a unit.
To be fair, this is likely to be temporary, as more units come online towards the end of this decade. This is despite an expected shortfall of 44,000 public flats on the original target of 280,000 units in the next 10 years. Still, the news is a black mark for Leung.
For the next chief executive, the work is cut out. His successor must continue the existing government programme of looking for new land supply, especially in light of the shortfall.