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As we find in part one, the current housing crisis will deepen in the future. Therefore, more and faster quick fixes are
desperately needed.
Hong Kong used to rely on large new towns to provide the bulk of housing. Unfortunately, Hong Kong has fallen
behind in new town creation in the past two decades. Since the Government lacks a land bank, an important
source of land for housing is by land rezoning, which reapportions existing sites with other uses into residential sites.
However, land rezoning does not create new land - it simply “robs one’s belly to cover one’s back” and cannot be the
sole strategy for long-term land supply.
Since 2013, the Planning Department (PlanD) has conducted three rounds of land use reviews, and identified a list
of 215 sites with housing development potential. As these sites are currently zoned under their respective Outline
Zoning Plans (OZPs) for non-residential purposes, amendments to the OZPs are required for housing development
to commence.
As of 31 January 2019, 4 sites have had their zoning amendments rejected and there were still 69 sites (32% of the
total of 215 sites) on the list pending for an initiation of their statutory rezoning processes.
In addition, last year, the Task Force on Land Supply (TFLS) recommended three additional rezoning efforts, namely:

i. developing “brownfield” sites;
ii. tapping in private agricultural land reserve in the New Territories; and
iii. alternative uses of sites under private recreational leases.

We urge the Government to make more concrete progress in rezoning additional “brownfield” sites
and farmland closer to the cited targets of 110 and 150 hectares in short-to-medium term according
to the TFLS. Specifically, a roadmap and a timetable of the additional massive rezoning efforts, as
well as a list of potential rezoning sites identified should be drafted and disclosed to the public.
Overall, as the housing crisis is deepening, we urge the Government and society-at-large to speed
up all land rezoning efforts for the remaining sites previously identified, along with the sites based
on the TFLS’s recommendations.

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