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Following is a transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, at a media session after the second meeting of the Long Term Housing Strategy Steering Committee this afternoon (November 22):
Reporter: (About the discussion items and proposal by Real Estate Developers Association (REDA))
Secretary for Transport and Housing: As I said, today's meeting mainly looked at the existing policies relating to housing, including public and private housing. We have not entered into any substantive discussion of the various issues involved. Those issues will be tackled in the course of the several meetings that will come in the coming months.
Until we have reached the final conclusions and recommendations, roughly in the middle of next year, we will not take any issues being discussed as final. So, at this stage, I will not say that we are particularly firm on any particular measures to be proposed.
As regards your second question, I understand that they (REDA) are going to submit some recommendations to the Government. But at this point, we have not yet received REDA's recommendations. So until we have got their recommendations, we are not able to comment in any particular way.
Reporter: (About home ownership ratio and rent control measures)
Secretary for Transport and Housing: We don't have any home ownership target or ratio at the moment. And as I said several times at the LegCo debate and other occasions, the Government doesn't set any rigid home ownership target. But of course, we are mindful of the aspirations for home ownership within the population. That is why we have decided to re-launch the Home Ownership Scheme to meet some of those aspirations.
On rent control measures, as I said at the LegCo, the Government doesn't have any plan to re-introduce the rent control scheme as existed a few years ago because we know that the decision to abolish the rent control scheme around the year 2000 was based on extensive debate whether within the community or within the LegCo. We have to be very careful about the implications of the introduction of rent control. At this point, we have no plan to re-introduce rent control.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, November 22, 2012
Issued at HKT 22:24
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