Property market in 'dangerous situation', warns Lam Woon-kwong
A "knee-jerk" approach to building more housing and creating a land reserve may permanently damage the efforts of town planners, Executive Council convenor Lam Woon-kwong cautions.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Lam also warned that speculative buying had put the property market in a "very dangerous" situation, and the government must watch for the downside while trying to alleviate the land shortage.
In his policy address last month, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said the government would rezone 36 government, institution and community sites to relieve the acute demand for housing.
Without referring specifically to Leung's speech, Lam cautioned that "some knee-jerk reactions could in due course do permanent damage".
He cited Tseung Kwan O as an example, noting that the town was originally planned to have a pleasant living environment.
I am old enough to say, we have made a lot of mistakes in our town planning and housing construction; most were because of knee-jerk reactions
Instead, the plot ratio was raised under former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa's policy of building 85,000 flats a year. Tseung Kwan O developed into a forest of high-rises that block the sunlight and darken the streets.