Our Hong Kong Foundation (OHKF) launched the second report of its "Land and Housing Policy Advocacy” series, “From Large-Scale Reclamation to an Ideal Home”, in response to the government’s “Hong Kong 2030+: Towards a Planning Vision and Strategy Transcending 2030” consultation. OHKF forecasts that the average completion of private residential units to be 20,200 in 2017 to 2020, which meets the target set by the LTHS and is 85% higher than that of the preceding decade. However, public housing is still chronically undersupplied, and the average waiting time of public rental housing has increased rapidly. In the long term, OHKF estimates that Hong Kong will require more than 1.26 million units of housing over the next 30 years, translating into more than 9,000 hectares of land. Yet, the government’s existing land development plans can only provide 5,300 hectares of land.

Hong Kong’s development is a story of reclamation. It is not only the cornerstone of the development of new towns, but also an important source of land for public and private housing. But in recent years, reclamation have halted, and Hong Kong is seriously falling behind its neighbours. As a result, the residential land available for reclamation from the past will soon be depleted. To ensure the continued and stable supply of land and establish a land reserve in the long-term, OHKF suggests that the Government should restart large-scale reclamation and proposes a number of reclamation sites. Together, we can build our “New Rose Garden”. In the short and medium term, OHKF recommends the government to consider ways of releasing private land bank to increase housing supply through public-private partnerships.