Speaking before students, the city’s top official said the government needed ‘enormous political courage’ to boost the supply of land and housing
GARY.CHEUNG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Friday, 11 December, 2015, 4:26pm
UPDATED : Friday, 11 December, 2015, 5:16pm
Leung Chun-ying gave his remarks before a group of secondary school students in Sham Shui Po. Photo: Facebook
Leung Chun-ying has warned that even if the government could offer residential flats for free, it would not be able to make good on such a promise in 15 years if it were not allowed to reclaim land and develop country parks.
Speaking at an inter-school debate competition in Sham Shui Po yesterday, the chief executive said the government must have “enormous political courage” to boost the city’s supply of land and housing.
“Assuming there was a site in country parks deemed by everyone to be of low ecological and sightseeing value, the government would build flats on the site and their selling price could be lower than that of ordinary Home Ownership Scheme flats,” Leung said in a hypothetical scenario. “But the price tag would only be enough to cover development and construction costs.”
“Would you considering buying such flats when you turn 30?” he asked.
Responding to some students’ concerns that it would be too long for them to wait 15 years for the completion of such affordable flats, Leung said: “Even if I promised you today that the government would provide residents aged 30 with free residential flats 15 years later, the government would still need to have sufficient land to build the flats.”
The chief executive added that land supply had been the biggest obstacle to increasing the number of available residential flats. “If we are not allowed to reclaim land, level mountains and develop country parks, we would face an even bigger problem 15 years from now,” he said.
Media organisations were not invited to cover the competition, which was organised by the Hong Kong United Foundation and the Centum Charitas Foundation.
Leung’s remarks at the closed-door event were exclusively reported by pro-government websitespeakout.hk on Thursday night.
READ MORE: Green spaces under housing threat from government
Leung last month drew the ire of environmentalists by raising the possibility of using country park land with low ecological value for housing.
Speaking ahead of an Executive Council meeting in November, Leung echoed comments by researchers from the Our Hong Kong Foundation think tank, who suggested a review of the ecological value and purpose of all country parks as part of a wider strategy on housing.
Leung said at the time there were suggestions from the community that those parts of the 400 square kilometres of country park land deemed to be of low ecological and sightseeing value could be used to build flats.
He said he had raised the idea with young people during forums on housing and suggested flats built on such sites could be sold to targeted groups, including young people, at lower prices with land premiums waived.
Additional reporting by Allen Au-yeung
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1889753/cy-leung-tells-hong-kong-teens-his-wish-offering-flats-free
