The financial secretary has dismissed criticism that the government was too slow in taking full control of Hong Kong’s land supply by scrapping the application list system, which was announced on Thursday.
Speaking on an RTHK English programme on Friday morning, John Tsang Chun-wah emphasised that the government took control – away from developers – as early as last year.
“In fact last year, most land sales were done through government-initiated sales – more than a couple of dozen of pieces of land,” he said.
“Every quarter we [had] about six to seven pieces [of land], so in fact we actually took control of the sales… We had quite a large income from land sales last year, because of the increased number of plots we sold.”
This week’s scrapping of the application list system would not have a significant impact on public revenues, he said.
On Thursday, Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po announced the end of the system, which has operated since 1999.
Chan said the government had been releasing sites for sale – without waiting for developers to bid for them on the application list – since the end of 2011.