Parties Urge Govt To Boost Land Supply In NT

Political parties on Wednesday called on the government to unleash the supply of land in the New Territories for housing and business development, such as making it easier for indigenous villagers to sell their ancestral plots and developing wetlands.

Speaking ahead of Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s policy address next week, the Business and Professionals Alliance proposed various ways for the government to resume land in the New Territories to tackle a housing shortage. These include providing higher compensation for landowners, making it easier for indigenous people to sell their ancestral plots and developing the peripheries of country parks.

It said the government can take back some 2,600 hectares of land that could be used to build around 650,000 to 720,000 public or private homes.

The party’s chairman, Lo Wai-kwok, said the government should also build a new business and technology hub in the New Territories, so Hong Kong could capitalise on the development of the special economic zone in Qianhai and the Greater Bay Area.

“The Greater Bay Area development has offered us a golden opportunity to not just make use of the land in the New Territories to house people, but also to develop high-end economic activities like innovation, technology, modern logistic services, professional services etc.”

BPA member Kenneth Lau, who's also chairman of Heung Yee Kuk, backed the idea to relax rules for indigenous people to sell their ancestral plots.

He said instead of requiring the unanimous consent of an entire clan to sell the land, indigenous people could, for example, be allowed to sell their plots as long as 70 to 80 percent of the ownership agreed to do so.

Meanwhile, DAB lawmaker Lau Kwok-fan urged the government to use some 1,200 hectares of wetland buffer areas for housing development, saying many of those plots have been abandoned or turned into brownfield sites.

He also called on the government to develop wetlands in the Lok Ma Chau Loop.