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Executive Summary

Land shortage is the root of many social and economic ills in comprehensive planning and effective policies, developing the
Hong Kong. New Territories will mark another turning point for Hong Kong in
creating a truly liveable community and inject new vigour into its
Hong Kong’s ongoing housing crisis and skyrocketing home prices economic growth.
have weighed heavily on many of the citizens’ mind, extinguishing
their hope for a better livelihood and starting a family of their own. The society has been desperate for a way out of the hopeless land
We raised the alarm that Hong Kong has got bogged down in a shortage—a holistic vision based on the broader aspiration of
deadlock of “triple lows”, respectively in spade-ready land supply, liveability, economic development, and sustainable growth is
housing completions, and quality of living reflected by the shrinking needed to sow the seeds of hope and drive change. With the right
average size of new housing units. If no resolute action is taken policies, we can secure a timely supply of land to realise this vision.
promptly, the society will continue to bear the poor living Future land creation initiatives will undoubtedly bring new
environment with great despair. opportunities, hopes, and more diversified economic and social
activities to Hong Kong people from all walks of lives.
The current land shortage is mainly attributed to the fact that no
new town has been built in the past twenty years. Previously, Planning for the future
Hong Kong has created substantial land supply by building nine
new towns since the 1970s, but such effort halted in the 2000s. In the upcoming three decades, Hong Kong will need at least
At present, Hong Kong’s urbanised area with well-planned usages 9,000 hectares of land according to our estimate based on
only consists of 20% of its total landmass, which is remarkably low practical needs. The major land supply measures planned by the
compared with other cities or regions, such as 47% in Shenzhen Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
and 73% in Singapore. (the Government) has so far contributed 5,000 hectares, including
the Lantau Tomorrow Vision (LTV), and the two ongoing New
To build a better living environment, Hong Kong must envision and Development Areas (NDAs), namely Hung Shui Kiu (HSK) and
invest in its future. Our society needs to take collective action and Kwu Tung North / Fanling North (KTN/FLN). These two NDAs
commit to increasing land supply via multi-pronged approaches. have been re-activated more than a decade ago. Still, the
In addition to reclamations, the New Territories presents a implementation process has been slower than desired because of
promising opportunity for large-scale development. With various reasons, most notably the bureaucratic red tape.

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