Plan to use idle land held by developers could be short-term answer to Hong Kong’s housing problem
Such plots have often been left unused for long periods because of planning restrictions or lack of infrastructure
Any collaboration between the Hong Kong government and private developers to use privately held idle agricultural land to tackle the housing shortage should be “open, fair and transparent”, government land advisers have warned.
The government-appointed Task Force on Land Supply agreed in a meeting on Tuesday that tapping into the roughly 1,000 hectares of land reserves held by private developers could be a possible short to midterm solution to boost housing supply.
One option would be for the government to form a partnership with private developers to build public or subsidised housing on existing land they already own, the task force said.
The land has often been left idle for long periods of time as a lack of infrastructure and town planning regulations make it difficult for developers to succeed in rezoning it for residential use.
Task force chairman Stanley Wong Yuen-fai said members agreed the government should not offer any financial incentives for developers to construct the homes.
“To safeguard public interest, the government should make sure that we would not give any financial incentives via concession of land premium … the government should [instead] provide incentives via the provision of the necessary infrastructure to make sure that the agricultural land is suitable for conversion into residential developments,” Wong said.