New ideas in housing proposals

The Democratic Party's latest housing proposals yesterday earned some praise from Mr Leung.

At the conclusion of a meeting which lasted almost two hours, Mr Leung said there were many 'new thoughts' in the party's five-page paper on housing.

Among them was a proposal to speed up the pace of redevelopment in old districts which fall under the urban renewal plan, such as Hunghom and Wan Chai.

Legislator Albert Chan Wai-yip also suggested that property developers be allowed to seek a court order to put the overall ownership and right of a development project up for open and competitive tender in certain circumstances.

He said developers should be allowed to do so if they managed to secure the consent of the majority of property owners in the building.