Financial Secretary Chan Mo-po released a new Budget on Wednesday (February 24). In his speech, he said that he would try to "create conditions and provide resources to solve deep-seated problems such as housing and poverty." But for public housing, it only reiterated that the government has found about 350 hectares of land to build about 330,000 public housing units, and stressed that the "Northern Metropolitan Area" and "Tomorrow Lantau" plans "can substantially increase housing supply".
Regarding the development of the "Northern Metropolitan Area", Chen Maobo said that the government is striving to formulate development plans for projects in the area within two to three years, and will set up a special fund under the Capital Works Reserve Fund to accelerate the progress of the project.
As for "Tomorrow's Lantau", Chen Maobo also pointed out that the government is studying to streamline the procedures, and strive to bring forward the schedule for the reclamation project in 2027 and the first batch of residents to join the occupation in 2034. According to sources, the government hopes that the progress can be accelerated by one year.
The Government estimates that the total cost of Lantau tomorrow will be about $624 billion.
(File photo / Photo by Ojiale)
Doubtful track record of similar arrangements
Chen Maobo said that a special fund of 100 billion yuan will be reserved from the accumulated income of the "Future Fund" to speed up the progress of the "Northern Metropolis" project.
However, this amount is only a nominal "reservation" in nature. It is difficult to guarantee that the "Housing Reserve", which also derives from the income of the "Future Fund", will be cancelled and the account will be reversed, and the funds will not be released. The effect originally envisaged.
As for the advance progress of "Lantau of Tomorrow" itself, it is only trying to catch up with the serious delays and backwardness of the past.
The document originally submitted to the Legislative Council for the study of artificial islands in the central waters clearly stated that "the first phase of reclamation is expected to start in 2025, with the goal of allowing the first residents to settle in in 2032."
Even if the latest timetable is specially advanced, it will still fall short of the initial goals set by officials, let alone reverse the nature of the "far water cannot put out near fire" nature of the land reclamation project itself.
Inferring from the Hong Kong government's track record, it is even more difficult to have confidence that the accelerated pace this time will really succeed.
Insufficient measures to follow up on policy address
It is also worth noting that in the Budget speeches of the past few years, the Financial Secretary has made special follow-up actions to increase the supply of land and housing in the previous Chief Executive's Policy Address.
For example, the 2019 "Policy Address" proposed to take back the land that has been planned for high-density housing but not developed. The next year's speech immediately stated that ten such sites will be locked for inspection; After the pilot plan of "Standard Amount" land premium, last year's speech also confirmed that the plan will be launched in the same quarter.
In March 2021, the Development Bureau launched a "standard rate" pilot scheme for land lease modification premiums for redevelopment of industrial buildings.
(file picture)
In contrast, this year, Chen Maobo seems to have paid less attention to these specific measures.
For example, last year's "Policy Address" stated that the government expects to complete the screening of "green belts" in the middle of this year to review their development potential, and to study the extension of the "standard amount" premium model to new development areas in the first quarter of this year and "enhanced traditional new markets" It is a bit unexpected that the results of these works did not appear in the speech at all.
The current government has reached the last year of its five-year term. Carrie Lam and Chen Maobo have also expressed on different occasions that their 2021 Policy Address and 2022 Budget are the last of the current Hong Kong government.
We hope that the changes in the length of the budget speech on housing supply measures do not mean that the progress of the aforementioned work is not as ideal, and we do not hope that it is a reflection of the decreased attention paid by officials to the relevant issues.
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