More relatively small sites will be put up for grabs next year to cater to smaller developers, the housing chief said yesterday. Secretary for Housing, Planning and Land Michael Suen Ming-yeung was speaking in response to calls by developers for more sites to be placed on the application list. The government said a day earlier that there were 99 hectares of land readily available for disposal - 10 times the amount on the list this year. In an attempt to clear market doubts over a possible housing shortage in 2006 suggested by some property analysts and developers, Mr Suen quoted a new set of figures to prove sufficient home supply in the coming three years. 'Developing projects at the moment involve about 48,000 units,' he said. 'Sites that are ready for construction can generate about 10,000 units while inventory in existing projects amounts to 15,000 units.' He said this should be enough if demand remained consistent. Mr Suen also assured legislators at a meeting of the planning, lands and works panel that the sale of subsidised flats would not resume before the target date of 2006. Housing Authority members had earlier proposed resuming the sale of Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats to public tenants, saying this would not hurt the private sector. But Mr Suen said: 'We have to be consistent in our policy.' About 16,000 HOS units are vacant because of a freeze on sales imposed to stabilise the private market. Meanwhile, the government is consulting the real estate industry about a centralised set of statistics regarding new buildings and the potential supply of new flats which could be launched by the end of the year.
