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In response to media enquiries on a press release issued by a political party yesterday (January 29) regarding their queries on the land and housing supply measures mentioned in the 2013 Policy Address, the spokesman of the Chief Executive's Office today (January 30) responded as follows:
Supply of public rental housing
(1) An average of 15,000 new public rental housing (PRH) units will be provided each year over the five years from 2012-13. Together with a net number of about 7,000 units on average to be recovered every year, about 22,000 PRH units will be available for allocation to applicants on the PRH Waiting List per year. The Government has decided to increase the production of PRH to an average of 20,000 units per year. However, as it involves land planning and consultation procedures, as well as design and build, it will take about five years, that is 2018 the earliest, for the new production target to be met. As a production target, the total supply of PRH will be at least 100,000 units over the five years starting from 2018. By then, the number of PRH units available for allocation will be 27,000 units per year (20,000 units + 7,000 recovered units).
(2) In line with the announced measures of increasing land supply, the Government will strive for an early completion of some of the PRH units to be supplied in the later stage of the next five years. The number of 75,000 PRH units available in these five years is a basic figure. The amount of the completed units should eventually exceed this figure. The production figure will be updated annually in the future.
Supply of Home Ownership Scheme units
The first batch of new Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats will be completed in 2016-17 the earliest, owing to time needed for land planning, consultation and construction. However, the batch will be offered for pre-sale by the end of next year. A total of 17,000 HOS flats will be built over the four years starting from 2016-17. Production will continue to grow to an average of at least 5,000 flats per year.
Land supply
Among the 391 hectares of idle residential sites mentioned by the political party, 19 of these sites (about 18.9 hectares) have been included in the 2012-13 Application List for land sale. For the remaining sites, a number of them are of irregular shapes, such as empty space between buildings, back lanes, and narrow strips of land alongside existing developments, highways or other amenities, which may not be suitable for housing development. Technical assessments are required for these sites to ascertain their development feasibility, such as studies of the adequacy of related infrastructural facilities, compatibility with neighbouring land uses and other factors. The Government will review and assess the development feasibility of these sites under the established mechanism. Upon completion of studies for a plot of land, we will allocate the site for public housing development or include it in the Application List for land sale as soon as possible.
Ends/Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Issued at HKT 21:25
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