Hong Kong’s shortage of housing land should be addressed by tackling the “commercialisation” of village houses, not necessarily by making the homes taller, a government adviser said on Monday morning.
Fred Li Wah-ming, a member of the Long Term Housing Strategy Steering Committee, made the suggestion on a radio programme on Monday morning, sparked by last week’s debate about the city’s small-house policy.
“The whole issue is not simply a land [problem] and could not be solved simply by raising height limits … There is the view that the policy leads to commercialisation. Many people are exploiting the grey area to sell the rights to some middlemen, so they can build and sell houses with developers,” Li said.
The small-house policy gives male indigenous villagers the right to build a three-storey house on a 700-sq-ft site close to their ancestral homes. Critics say the law is discriminatory and open to abuse for profit through collusion with developers.
“Is [commercialisation] against the [policy’s intention] because it was [designed to deal with villagers’] housing need?” Li warned that the government should be careful in this grey area.