Page 6 - 20190415_LandAdvocacy_EN

More and Faster Quick Fixes – Are There More Bandages Around?

4. While large new towns can provide the bulk of housing, constructing the relevant social, economic and transportation
infrastructure takes at least a decade. Unfortunately, Hong Kong has fallen behind in new town creation in the past two
decades and lacks a land bank. As the current housing crisis continues to deepen, more and faster quick fixes are desperately
needed to help relieve the situation in the immediate future.

5. Land rezoning, which reapportions existing sites of other uses into residential sites, has been an important source of land for
recent housing supply. Land rezoning does not create new land - it simply “robs one’s belly to cover one’s back” and cannot
be the sole strategy for long-term land supply. However, in view of the significant shortfall of public housing, we urge the
Government and society-at-large to speed up all land rezoning efforts.

6. Since 2013, three rounds of land uses reviews have demarcated a total of 215 sites for land rezoning. But as of January 2019,
69 of them, or almost a third, are still awaiting the initiation of the statutory rezoning process. We are concerned about these
69 sites because they can potentially provide about 116,000 units in total.
7. After examining these 69 sites in detail, we believe that the Government should prioritise and expedite the process for at least
25 of them. On the other hand, we assess that there are another 25 sites that are challenging, among which 15 of them are
so-called “brownfield” sites occupied by business operators. Developing these sites will inevitably involve the complicated
issues of land resumption, relocation and compensation.

4