Foreign media reported earlier that the central government requested real estate developers to help solve the housing problem, indicating that "the rules of the game have changed" and that "monopoly behaviors" are no longer tolerated.
The housing problem has always been the most serious deep-seated contradiction in Hong Kong. Cage homes and subdivided houses have always existed. In recent years, they have worsened under high property prices. Central officials have repeatedly expressed their concerns. Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, said in July this year " Say goodbye to the expectations of the sub-divided housing.
"There are tens of thousands of buildings in Ande Guangsha, and the world is full of joy." Du Fu's wish has not been fulfilled in Hong Kong today.
In recent days, government officials, political parties and even real estate developers have put forward different housing projects, but can each of them be implemented immediately?
The Hong Kong Real Estate Developers Association met a few days ago to discuss the central government’s concern about housing issues in Hong Kong.
(Information Picture/Photo by Liao Yanxiong)
The DAB advocates the sale of forward home ownership flats
The DAB held a press conference last Sunday and announced a number of housing policy recommendations, including the proposal to pre-sell HOS flats in the North of the New Territories with five-year uncompleted flats to young families and marginal middle-class families. The application qualifications are similar to the current HOS qualifications and a white form People first.
New thinking suggests to re-launch the "Private Participation in the Construction of Home Ownership Scheme". It is believed that local developers hold a lot of suitable land in the New Territories. Build a home housing.
The new thinking takes the new HOS housing in Diamond Hill as an example. It is estimated that each unit will cost about 1 million yuan in construction. A 400-square-foot two-bedroom unit can be sold for 3 million to 4 million yuan after a 40% discount, so that the public can afford it.
Liu Yeqiang, chairman of the Heung Yee Kuk, said that he had repeatedly suggested to the government that "ding buildings" could be built to replace the old "small houses." The construction of "Dingsha" is expected to solve the problem of illegal construction that has been criticized for many years.
The Heung Yee Kuk also supports the release of ancestral halls and the relaxation of plot ratios to increase land supply.
The Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Real Estate Developers Association, Leung Chi-kin, hopes that the government can take a multi-pronged approach to increase land sales and speed up the process of approving agricultural land.
Guo Jihui, vice chairman of the Land Development Council, earlier proposed that the government should "two tracks in parallel". For example, when there are ancestral halls, brownfields and agricultural land for development, priority should be given to them; for the development of the border areas of country parks, Guo Jihui pointed to the government The option should not be ruled out. It is believed that the government should consider any method that can solve the land problem regardless of short-term, medium-term or long-term.
The problem of land and housing in Hong Kong is extremely acute and is one of the sources of deep-seated contradictions in society.
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Finding land to build a house does not happen overnight, it is necessary to turn "raw land" into "reclaimed land"
The government has focused on developing the New Territories North in recent years. Financial Secretary Chen Mao-po earlier proposed that the reserved commercial land in the Hung Shui Kiu and Kwu Tung North/Fanling North development areas could be converted to residential use; Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who will publish the Policy Address next month , Also foreseeing the focus on the development of New Territories North, and the development of Qianhai with transportation infrastructure first.
In response to rumors that the central government was "pressing" developers, Lam said that he felt that developers were "relatively willing" in recent years to cooperate with the SAR government's policies, such as the "Land Sharing Pilot Program."
The proposals put forward by many parties have merits, but there are also deficiencies.
As far as land development is concerned, houses cannot be built right away. Mountains, forests, wetlands and other land have no transportation facilities and lack of hydropower and sewage facilities. In terms of land development, these are called "green land."
For "raw land" to become "reclaimed land", it is necessary to lay road networks, water pipes, cables, sewers, and communication networks. If these infrastructures are sufficient, it is "recovered land", and it is possible to build buildings for people to live in.
This problem is especially obvious in the "Land Sharing Pilot Project."
At present, the land proposed by developers is mostly agricultural land and green land, which belong to "green land" without supporting facilities. For example, Xindi has proposed more than 630,000 square feet of land on Ho Chau Road, Nan Sang Wai, Yuen Long, which is far from the main traffic section. It also means that the land belongs to the wetland buffer zone and is adjacent to the wetland conservation area.
Excluding the wetland environment and conservation considerations, it takes more time to fill soil and lay infrastructure pipelines there.
In the end, no matter what form of development of these lands, regional planning is required. As Leung Zhijian said, the government needs to speed up the process of approving agricultural land in order to continue the subsequent infrastructure work.
On August 11, the New Territories Heung Yee Kuk submitted a policy address proposal to the Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, and put forward a number of land recommendations to the government, including relaxing the development restrictions on ancestral halls.
(Photo by Ou Jiale)
Thresholds need to be lowered for the development of ancestral halls
As for the ancestral halls, which are generally located in the surrounding villages of the New Territories, it is believed that there is already a certain amount of infrastructure, which can be developed relatively quickly. If difficulties are encountered, they can also be dealt with under the Land Resumption Ordinance.
In May this year, the Government adopted the Land Resumption Ordinance to reclaim the land at the junction of Fanling, Yuen Long Shap Pak Heung and Yuen Lung Street and Yau Tin East Road, along with the nearby official land, including the ancestral hall.
The development of ancestral halls is expected to have little resistance in the Heung Yee Kuk. The difficulty lies in the fact that the land involves "grown villagers", and the threshold for sale is naturally high. Therefore, some developers have suggested that the threshold for selling ancestral halls should be agreed by 80% of the clan members.
As for Ding Xia's suggestion, we can refer to the case in the late 1950s.
At that time, the government wanted to build the Shek Pik Reservoir, so all the villagers in Shek Bi Township were moved to the newly developed Tsuen Wan New Town, and they were resettled in a building called Shek Bi New Village.
The original Hung Shing Ye and Hou Wang Temples in Shibi New Village were combined into one on the top floor of the building and renamed as the "Hong Hou Temple", which is a rare "upstairs temple" in Hong Kong.
After the success of this case, the government also moved the Liutiao Village affected by Plover Cove Reservoir to Tai Po in the same way, which is the Liuxiang New Village in Tai Po Market.
These two cases may serve as reference examples for exchanging land with villages in the New Territories and even developing dingsha.
Private participation in the construction of HOS can develop large-scale residential housing
The "Private Participation in the Construction of Home Ownership Scheme" has been implemented as early as 1978. It includes Kornhill Garden, Aldrich Garden, Regent Garden, Fu Wing Garden, Dragon Gate, Tai Po Plaza, etc. Among them, Kornhill Garden is the only one in Hong Kong. A home ownership housing estate built on a MTR station. However, after the sale of HOS flats was suspended in 2002 and the Red Bay Peninsula was sold to a co-developing developer, there has been no similar project ever since.
If it is suggested with new thinking that a large area of land in the New Territories can be used for private HOS construction, it can be more flexible. The method of building private buildings is aimed at accelerating land supply and building infrastructure facilities in one go.
When Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor met with the establishment people, she thought that the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance could be reviewed to find ways to shorten the time in the EIA.
(Photo by Zhang Haowei)
However, if privately-participated HOS sites are selected in the suburbs of the New Territories, the process of turning "raw land" into "prepared land" is still needed, and speeding up approval and planning can shorten the preliminary procedures and make the land a step into the construction of infrastructure as soon as possible.
The Financial Secretary Chen Maobo earlier proposed to start with the Town Planning Board to simplify some procedures and shorten the consultation time.
When Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor later met with officials from the establishment, he believed that he could review the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance and look for ways to shorten the time in the EIA.
Urban renewal should speed up the "block" planning to increase the flexibility of district supporting facilities
While looking for land to build houses in the New Territories, the government should speed up the promotion of urban renewal.
In addition to rebuilding in a demand-led model, you can also consider cooperating with developers who own old buildings in the urban area. In addition to sharing the cost, you can also rebuild an entire "block" (meaning a lot divided by 4 streets in the south, east, north, and west) , The lower level is equipped with infrastructure such as markets, homes for the elderly, social welfare institutions or shopping malls, and the upper level can increase the plot ratio, and build multiple public or private housing in one go.
Various sectors have suggested many plans to increase the supply of land and housing. However, none of them can take on the important task alone. The government should consider speeding up multiple plans at the same time to increase the supply of housing from many aspects.
