Hong Kong finance chief Paul Chan gives cash to help use idle government sites – but nothing to boost home ownership
Subsidies for NGOs that want to use government or community land included in budget, along with sell-off of 27 residential sites and four commercial sites
This includes a HK$1 billion subsidy to help NGOs use almost 900 idle government plots and vacant campuses for short-term purposes such as container homes, performance venues, offices and welfare services.
It also includes efforts to redevelop and consolidate existing government facilities to release more land for housing and economic development.
“Land and housing supply has been a long-standing problem in Hong Kong,” Chan said in his budget speech. “The government has been making every effort to identify land and boost housing supply.”
A government source close to the plans for the idle sites said few NGOs had applied to use vacant schools and government sites in the past few years – with only six applications last year – due to the sites’ remoteness and poor condition.