Page 67 - ENGLISH_Land

development programmes currently under planning or implementation,
such as the Tung Chung New Town Expansion and Kai Tak NDA, were
already tabled for deliberation two decades ago, but were apparently
shelved when the housing market tanked. We believe the events in the
past two decades have underscored the critical importance of a persistent
and consistent land supply policy that ought to survive volatility of property
and business cycles, as well as political regimes. We have also raised the
example of the Marina Bay development of Singapore to highlight the
importance of having a land reserve so that a policy response to market
changes, whilst admittedly difficult, is within the realm of possibility.

In this connection, we have presented our views and suggestions
on the Lantau Development, which in our view, is the next large-scale land
development project that could possibly not only provide an abundant
supply of developable land, but is also a critical project for our long-
term social and economic development, given its unparalleled strategic
geographical location.

We close our research with the acknowledgement that an
increase in land supply does not necessarily mean a timely increase in
supply of housing or other types of space, because there is still a lengthy
process between land and housing production. In this connection, we
made a few suggestions to expedite the land and housing development
process and to maximise the space provision on existing land resources.
We hope that these measures could serve as some “quick fixes” to the
current predicament of space shortage in the city, including increasing
development density especially in NDAs, and a more optimised
development for vacant GIC sites in urban areas. We have also reiterated
our call for the government to streamline the existing approval procedures
of land development, with a corresponding increase in resources allocated
in this area.

Land supply is a policy issue that unavoidably touches every
family of the society. It also understandably causes great controversies
among the community. However, mere debates and arguments do little
to improve the current circumstance of space shortage, nor do these
ameliorate any hardship of those suffering such as families living in sub-
divided units and elders awaiting nursing homes. At OHKF, we believe the
first step to solving the problem is the recognition of the severity of the
problem and the realisation that any solution would necessitate one type
of compromise or another. We hope that our research could provide the
necessary information and new perspectives through which the issues
of land supply could viewed, that may however be absent or insufficiently
discussed in the public discourse.

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