New Chief Executive, John Lee, must streamline planning process, boost transitional homes to address Hong Kong’s housing crisis, experts say

Name: ‘What needs to be done will be’: Hong Kong’s next leader John Lee | Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo
Uploaded: 2022-07-06T01:30:13.000Z
Duration: 26 min 44 s
Description: ‘What needs to be done will be’: Hong Kong’s next leader John Lee | Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo

The city’s new leader should also aim to cut the amount of red tape so that residential units can be churned out at a faster pace, say property analysts

The average waiting time for a public rental home reached 6.1 years in March, the longest in 23 years

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The new government should consider increasing the supply of transitional homes to relieve the shortage of public rental housing, said Norry Lee at JLL. Photo: AFP

Lam Ka-sing

Published: 9:30am, 6 Jul 2022Updated: 9:34am, 6 Jul 2022

Industry experts are calling on Hong Kong’s new Chief Executive, John Lee Ka-chiu, to speed up the building of transitional housing, streamline the planning process, and relax curbs on reselling as short-term measures to address a chronic shortage of flats.

The new government should consider increasing the supply of transitional homes to relieve the shortage of public rental housing, said Norry Lee, senior director of projects strategy and consultancy at JLL.

“The government could boost the supply of transitional housing in the coming two to three years as a temporary solution to alleviate the long wait,” said Lee.

Transitional housing is an initiative the government launched to accommodate low-income families who are waiting to be placed in public rental housing. With the adoption of modular building, several transitional housing projects were made available in a short period of time.

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‘What needs to be done will be’: Hong Kong’s next leader John Lee | Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo

JLL said the supply from the private sector is highly dependent on economic conditions.