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2. Construction activities started to slow down in the second half of 2018 and further deteriorated in 2019. A cycle-wide decline
could be observed in all stages of the development cycle, from land acquisition through construction. Spade-ready land
supply, superstructure commencement, and presale consents all recorded a sharp reduction of 35–53% from their respective
peak levels over the past one to two years. To make matters worse, the lowering land reserve is compounded with the
deceleration in the spade-readying process.

3. Taking into account the industry slowdown, our rolling five-year completion estimate is being revised downwards. It is expected
that in the next five years (2020–2024), the average number of private residential completion will be about 16,000 units, down
14% from our previous 18,500-unit estimate for 2019–2023.
4. Looking ahead into 2025–2029, our land source will become insufficient with limited options. The ideal solution would be
to develop New Development Areas (NDAs) or new towns in order to create large land pieces with coordinated planning.
However, according to the recent 2020–21 Budget Speech, varying degrees of delay has been observed in such development.
5. As a result, we may resort to rezoning again. However, with the low-hanging fruit already processed by the Government,
it will be increasingly difficult to create new spade-ready sites by the means of rezoning. On the other hand, rezoning by
private developers has always been lengthy and uncertain, as they need to go through the time-consuming red tape with the
Government.
6. In view of the alarming outlook on land and housing supply, we recommend expediting all existing land and housing
development initiatives. These include, but are not limited to, efforts on rezoning, NDA development (partially through land
resumption), the Land Sharing Pilot Scheme, urban redevelopment, topside development of railway, and large-scale land
reclamation.
7. At the same time, it is essential to review and evaluate the existing administrative procedures on land and housing development.
With the aim of streamlining the development procedures, we devise ten recommendations for the Government’s consideration,
which were widely supported by industry professionals.

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