Leung Chun-ying's housing push puts industrial sector out
Chief executive's focus on building homes is making space for other uses scarce, say critics who want to a see a broader development plan
The government's bias towards housing development in planning policy has left business owners crying out for industrial space.
As Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's administration enters a third year, planners and property consultants say the government should have a blueprint for the development of the city as a whole, rather than use town planning as a tool to remedy a housing shortage.
Their concerns have been sharpened by Leung's activism on the policy front to enable 470,000 flats to be built over the next decade.
Property consultants said the government's priority of boosting housing supply had come at the expense of other land-use needs, in particular, crimping the stock of industrial land.
"If all this land is changed to residential, where do all the industrialists go?" said Darren Benson, an executive director of industrial and logistics services for CBRE Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.