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Written by: comment editing room
2020-09-23 18:32
Last update date: 2020-09-23 18:33
The land lease of the Fanling Golf Course originally expired at the end of last month, but the government finally decided to renew the lease and set the rent at one yuan per year.
This not only means that the government has to postpone the resumption of land, but also the public housing construction on the site.
The housing problem in Hong Kong is in dire straits. Not only must the Hong Kong government understand that the wealthy are important to play football, or that the basic needs of the more people are urgent, but it must also dare to make good use of idle land and try to make the citizens a comfortable and happy city.
At present, the average waiting time for public housing in Hong Kong is 5.5 years. Although the authorities indicated last year that they fully accepted the recommendations of the Land Supply Task Force to reclaim part of the golf courses for housing construction purposes, this belated justice has been postponed.
Although the title deed of the golf course expired last month, the authorities did not immediately reclaim the land and immediately level the land. Instead, they proposed a "special transitional arrangement" to renew the 32 hectares of land originally planned for the construction of public housing. It will be held for three years, with a nominal fee of 1 yuan a year as rent; and another 140 hectares of land will be leased separately and leased at a rent of 1000 yuan until 2027.
Fanling Golf Course.
(Profile picture)
Although the government emphasizes that the progress of technical research on housing construction is satisfactory, the time required to build houses on the original site will definitely be extended.
According to the Secretary for Development Wong Wai Lun last year, the authorities expect that the relevant detailed technology should be completed by early 2021, and it is expected that the site can be turned into a "prepared land" for housing construction in 2024.
However, when the Hong Kong government decided to renew the land approval until the end of 2023, it also meant that if the government was either able to complete the leveling project within a few months, it was forced to repeatedly postpone the project and lengthen the time for the grassroots to go upstairs. The topography of the golf course is uneven, and the foundations are insufficient, so there is a high chance that Wong Wai Lun's statement will be reduced to a "false sky."
Apart from the controversy over the golf course, the government has not seen the urgency of the people in a hurry and has actively sought land for housing.
According to the Audit Commission’s report in July, as of September 2019, the Lands Department has managed 5,582 short-term leases involving 2,411 hectares of land. It can be seen through the short-term lease geospatial data released by the Department on the Hong Kong Geographic Data Station that these lands Many of them are located in areas with complete infrastructure such as Tuen Mun, Hung Shui Kiu and Tsing Yi.
In addition, the 204 hectares of land under short-term leases released by this group of data only earned a monthly rental return of more than 80 million yuan, and the Audit Office report pointed out that the annual rental income from short-term leases from 2014 to 2018 was only about 1.3 to 1.6 billion yuan. Reflecting their ineffectiveness to the warehouse income.
Therefore, when the demand for housing is strong, the government considers that it is better to use idle resources to find land to build houses.
Although the Lam Cheng government vowed to resolve the housing problem in Hong Kong, last year it launched a large-scale land debate to listen to public opinion. However, apart from protecting the golf club members’ right to play, the government does not necessarily actively seek land. The embarrassment of the room.
Although Lam Cheng’s five-year term of office had already passed when the public housing project of the Fanling Golf Course started, and he was no longer responsible for his campaign promises, the authorities’ attitude towards the Golf Course was that it first released another 140 hectares of land and then delayed the resumption of public buildings. The land is not only retrograde, but also a lazy government that fears vested interests.
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Fanling Golf Course Public Housing Wong Wai Lun 01 Viewpoint