Opinion | A target for Hong Kong’s next chief executive: 200,000 flats in the Northern Metropolis by 2027

With the wait for public housing reaching a historic high, the new government must set a specific and unambiguous target

The Northern Metropolis is a good place to start because land in the New Territories already exists. What we need is the willpower to use it for public good

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Incoming chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu visits Yau Mei Tai residents on April 24. Photo: Handout

Published: 9:15am, 23 May 2022Updated: 8:26am, 16 Jun 2022

News that the wait for public housing had reached a two-decade high of 6.1 years, against a target of three years, adds new urgency to the pledge by incoming chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu to give priority to solving the problem. The latest government estimate is that Hong Kong should aim to provide 430,000 housing units over 10 years.

There are some who say the estimate is excessive because of emigration, or because fertility levels have fallen and families are getting smaller. But immigration from the mainland and elsewhere can always pick up. Let us just accept for discussion purposes that the number is very big.

As he sits down to start addressing the issue, Lee needs to be very careful. There is a danger the outgoing administration will be feeding him lots of micro projects to get off to a quick start: an unused school site here, a small parcel of open space there, a slice from a golf course to demonstrate “resolve” and ability to stand up to “vested interests”. But if he really wants to make an impact, Lee needs to think big, and strategically, and remain true to his “result-oriented” philosophy.

The question is not how many houses he can produce by Christmas, or in his first 100 days or any other short-term horizon, but how big a dent he will have made in the problem by the end of his five-year term.

Lee needs to set an ambitious target for housing units over his term. It is important that the target be specific and unambiguous, and incapable of being manipulated. Let me explain.

Every year, following the policy address, the government issues a report on progress of its pledges from the previous year. Public servants have no wish to make a rod for their backs, so the language of the promise contains as much wiggle room as possible.

The government promises to strive to achieve a certain thing. As long as it has strived, it has delivered. It promises to introduce or pursue a particular proposal. As long as that proposal was pursued, then irrespective of the outcome the promise was kept. In this way, the progress report can almost always be positive, and the language triumphant.