Give the job of finding land to a dedicated body to solve Hong Kong’s land shortage crisis, says advisory task force

Hong Kong should have a dedicated body to fast track land creation and build up a land reserve sustainedly, free from economic cycles, to tackle the city’s land shortage crisis, government advisers suggest.

The advisers also urge top officials to monitor the overall assessment on land demand and supply with input from different policy bureaus so that they can provide “timely alerts” on land shortage arising from social changes.

The Post has learned that these are part of the recommendations made by the Task Force on Land Supply, which will release its report today , after a five-month public consultation gauging views on how to find the land to support the city’s housing and economic development over the next three decades.

In its report of more than 100 pages, the task force proposed a “comprehensive and sustained regime of land supply” before shortlisting eight concrete options to find land. The preferred options, as reported earlier, include using brownfield sites, private farmland, part of a 170-hectare golf course in Fanling and massive reclamation to the east of Lantau Island.

The first key element of the new regime, the task force stressed, would be “sustained” land creation, which covered a long process, from preliminary studies, technical assessments to public consultations and approval procedures.