The Housing Society has been tasked by the government to conduct a study into the feasibility of building homes on a small proportion of land on country parks. The first study will focus on sites on the edges of Tai Lam Country Park, west to the Tai Lam Tunnel Toll Plaza, and Ma On Shan Country Park near the Shui Chuen O Estate in Sha Tin. If property development is restricted on the periphery of country parks with relatively low ecological value, it deserves public support. This is one of the feasible ways to increase land supply and ease shortage of land for development in Hong Kong.
As a matter of fact, the new record high of $50,000 per square foot set by the commercial land site of the Murray Road Multi-storey Carpark in Central indicates the rush to grab land for development has spread from residential sites to commercial sites. It is evident that the problem of shortage of land for development in Hong Kong is worsening. This is not just a matter concerning meeting housing demand by residents but also unfavourable for Hong Kong's overall economy and business environment as it weakens Hong Kong's competitiveness. Authorities have to comprehensively cultivate new sources of land supply with new thinking. Sites on country parks are by no means something that absolutely cannot be touched.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying proposed in his Policy Address early this year to consider allocating a small proportion of land on the periphery of country parks with relatively low ecological value for building public housing. The feasibility study to be conducted by the Housing Society is mainly a response to this proposal. The study will include the impact on the eco-environment of the country parks and the ecological value of the sites on the country parks.
Undeniably, the government's proposal to develop a small proportion of land on country parks inevitably arouses much controversy in society, objection from conservation groups being particularly strong. But under the big premise of social and economic development, choice must be made and one thing be weighed up against another. Greater importance must be attached to solving the problem of meeting residents' housing demand.
As land and housing prices go up madly, there are more sufficient reasons to support development of a small proportion of land on country parks for building public housing.
First of all, Hong Kong's housing market is on the verge of getting out of control, posing a serious threat to social and economic stability. Residential housing price keeps setting record highs, now about 80 per cent higher than its peak in 1997. A crisis of property bubble burst intensifies. Developing sites on country parks could increase land supply for residential housing, which would help curb property market.
Secondly, land supply in Hong Kong remains short in the mid- and long-term. The government's goal is to build 460,000 public and private housing units in next 10 years, including 280,000 public housing units and 180,000 private housing units. But right now, land sites planned for building public housing are only enough for 230,000-plus units. Sites for building the remaining 40,000-plus units have yet to be allocated. Developing a small proportion of land on the periphery of country parks can fill the gap and help change the market expectation that housing price would keep going up and never come down.
Thirdly, it is hard for the government to increase residential housing supply by making changes in planned uses of land sites. The government's method to increase supply of land sites for residential housing is mainly to change the uses of sites for communities, school and environmental afforestation. Such sites generally are small in area. So the move can hardly increase residential housing supply in large quantity, and it often meets opposition and resistance. As a result, projects are delayed or reduced in size or even forced to give up.
The Housing Society's feasibility study this time will focus on sites on the periphery of the Tai Lam and Ma On Shan Country Parks, with a total area of over 40 hectares, equivalent to over four million square feet. Once the study proves development is feasible, a few large public housing estates can be built on these sites to provide thousands of units to benefit society.
Hong Kong in fact is not lack of land, but short of developable sites, including residential and commercial sites. Compared with cultivating brown land and land reclamation from surrounding waters, developing a small proportion of land on the periphery of country parks can avoid the problem of land resumption and provide land sites for development in bulk.
18 May 2017
