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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2021-02-25 07:00
Last update date: 2021-02-25 07:00
According to statistics from Demographia, an international survey agency, Hong Kong has been among the most unaffordable cities in the world for 11 consecutive years. However, the Financial Secretary Chen Maobo’s budget speech delivered on Wednesday (23) did not discuss land and housing. The policy is to provide new information, but to repeat the old information and to compile the progress of existing projects into documents. It is really ashamed of the expectations of the people of Hong Kong.
According to a survey conducted by Demographia, Hong Kong's property prices have been the highest in the world for 11 consecutive years. It takes an average of 20.7 years for each family to buy a property and start a car without eating or drinking, which is far behind the 13 years when the second place, Vancouver.
In his speech, Chen Maobo mentioned that the Kwu Tung North/Fanling North New Development Area and the Tung Chung East reclamation project are expected to be officially occupied in 2026 and 2024 respectively.
The progress of the two projects is gratifying, but they are not originally proposed by the current government.
As early as the "Hong Kong Development Strategy Review" in the 1990s, the British Hong Kong government pointed out for the first time that the Northeast New Territories has great development potential. In the 2007 "Hong Kong 2030: Planning Vision and Strategy", the authorities also suggested that Kwu Tung North and Fan Places such as Lingbei and Ping Che were built into new development areas, which were listed in the "Policy Address" of the same year as the "Top Ten Infrastructure Projects"; the development feasibility study of Tung Chung East was also carried out in January 2012, and It was regarded as the main land supply measure in the 2014, 15 and 2016 Policy Addresses.
Financial Secretary Chen Maobo held a press conference to introduce the budget.
(Photo by Li Zetong)
Follow up the old things and discuss without making decisions
The old tune is not limited to the two projects mentioned above. For example, Chen Maobo's additional mention of "one site for multiple uses" and the proposal to rezone five commercial lands in East Kowloon to residential buildings are also materials to teach the public to revisit the past.
In the 2017 Policy Agenda, the Development Bureau and the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau proposed to make the best use of land resources through the "single-site, multiple-use" development model. Today, the Financial Secretary announced that it would hold a regional consultation on the site selection. It's just to follow up on established matters.
Similarly, as early as 2016, the government stated its intention to convert some commercial land in East Kowloon into residential buildings, but unfortunately the government was still hesitant about this, saying only that it would study the feasibility of the plan.
This also indirectly reflects the slow efficiency of the authorities.
Another feature of the Budget in terms of land and housing policies is that it is not decided upon but not decided. For example, in March last year, the Planning Department completed a review report on the "brownfields" with high development potential and pointed out that the eight groups were located in Yuen Long, Tuen Mun and The "brownfields" in Tai Po are more suitable for the development of public housing. However, Chen Maobo did not give much attention to the development of these "brownfields" in his budget. He did not explain that the government has repeatedly promised to complete the 290 hectares of medium-sized brownfield development potential by the end of last year According to the results of the land analysis and review, there are no specific measures and targets such as development plans, land resumption plans, and expected housing production. They just mentioned that more than 860 hectares of brownfields in the New Territories can be used for housing construction.
Although Chen Maobo has tried to respond to public opinion on measures such as electronic consumer vouchers, stock stamp duty increase, unemployment debt and other measures, and proposed some minor policies, on the land and housing issues that Hong Kong people are most concerned about, Chen Maobo’s performance is far from satisfactory and shameful. Expect the citizens.
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