When Hong Kong needs more land for housing and progress, why rule out reclamation and country park fringes?

Reading Time:2 minutes

The greens of the Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling, with a residential project coming up next to it. Even if its courses were taken over for housing, there would still not be enough land for decent homes. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Published: 6:32pm, 6 Jun 2018Updated: 12:32pm, 15 Oct 2020

Environmentalists say no to reclamation and building on the periphery of country parks. Activists claim government-business collusion if land held by developers in the New Territories is released. They want to develop the Fanling golf course and the brownfield sites.

But even then, there will still not be sufficient land for Hong Kong to house its citizens decently, instead of in rabbit hutches. Hong Kong needs more land for its commercial activities, for logistics, warehousing, and container storage facilities. It also needs land for the innovation and technology, creative, and recycling industries, for tourism, and an expanded financial sector. We need more land for hospitals and elderly homes as well.

Residents divided over using parks for housing: Greenpeace survey

We need to attract more talent and workers for our industries, and more health care givers for our ageing population. Some argue that our future population projections are incorrect, or that our housing problem will be solved if we reduce the 150-a-day quota for family reunions from the mainland.

Time to renegotiate policy that allows 150 mainland Chinese to settle in Hong Kong every day

If we plan for a declining population, we will stagnate, much like some economies that are facing a similar situation. This is not what we want for Hong Kong.

If there was no reclamation in Hong Kong, there would be no Sha Tin, Tsuen Wan, Tai Po, Tseung Kwan O, Tuen Mun or Tung Chung as we know them, as they were all built partially on reclaimed land. The total land area of Singapore has been increased by about 24 per cent through reclamation and Macau by 160 per cent.

Watch: Explaining Hong Kong’s housing crisis

Why can’t we reclaim outside Victoria Harbour? Why can’t we use the periphery of country parks with low ecological value for homes, when currently 40 per cent of Hong Kong’s total area is designated for country parks and only 6.9 per cent is for housing?

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x