10-Year Housing Supply In Review

Hong Kong, 8 December 2021 — The Government’s 10-year housing supply target will remain unchanged at 430,000 units, while the public to private flat ratio of 70:30 will also stay the same.

Secretary for Transport & Housing Frank Chan made the statement when he unveiled the Long Term Housing Strategy Annual Progress Report 2021. Mr Chan said the supply target is set based on the latest projection of total housing demand for the 10-year period from 2022-2023 to 2031-2032.

“Firstly, we have to estimate how much public housing demand there is. The number of new households to be formed, the number of households to be displaced by redevelopment, the number of households living in inadequate housing, and also other reasons such as the number of students studying in Hong Kong or mobile population visiting Hong Kong.

“So all these together will generate a total number of demand and based on the demand for the next 10 years, we take this as the supply target. And because the anticipated demand for public housing remains the same, and together with the private housing. And therefore, the target of 430,000 units remains the same.”

Balancing the Government’s commitment to increase public housing supply substantially to meet the community’s demand and the demand for private housing, the public to private flat ratio will be maintained at 70:30 for the next 10-year period. Therefore, the public housing supply target will be 301,000 units, comprising 210,000 units for public rental housing units or Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme flats, and 91,000 units for other subsidised sale flats.

Mr Chan said the Government has identified the 350 hectares of land required for providing 330,000 public housing units, about one-third are scheduled for completion in the first five-year period whereas the other two-thirds fall in the second five-year period. The private housing supply target for the period will be 129,000 units.

Mr Chan pointed out that, the Government will strive to secure about 170 hectares of land in the coming 10 years and make available to the market sites for the production of about 100,000 units through land sales and tender exercises for railway property developments. Also taken into account development projects undertaken by the Urban Renewal Authority and other private land development projects, the Government is confident that sufficient land can be secured to meet the target. As regards to private housing supply in the shorter term, Mr Chan stated the supply of first-hand private residential flats for the coming three to four years is about 94,000, a relatively high level.