Can tradeable land rights be the solution to Hong Kong’s housing crisis? These two legal researchers think so
- The idea involves two steps: first, the government allocates 50 square feet of land as transferable development rights (TDRs) to every permanent resident
- Secondly, the tradeable TDRs can be pooled by real estate developers into lots that can support the construction of residential property
Two researchers are proposing an idea to revolutionise Hong Kong’s land-use laws, floating an idea that could help to unlock and convert the city’s swathes of farmland into residential land and help alleviate the city’s chronic affordability problem.
The idea involves a two-step process: first, the government needs to allocate 50 square feet (4.6 square metres) of land in the form of transferable development rights (TDRs) to every eligible Hong Kong permanent resident. Secondly, the tradeable TDRs can be pooled by real estate developers into lots that can support the construction of residential property, according to Hong Kong University’s professor of law Qiao Shitong, and the New York University’s law professor Roderick Hills Jr. The plan could even be used for building public housing for low-income households.
“Housing in Hong Kong is among the least affordable in the world, and the problem is not the lack of land, but lack of development,” Qiao said in an interview with South China Morning Post, adding that the TDR could be quicker and cheaper than the local government’s HK$624 billion (US$80 billion) Lantau Tomorrow plan to build homes on reclaimed land. “Why reclaim new land at such high cost when existing land is just sitting there ready for new construction?”